Save a life

In the next two minutes, dirty water will kill another child. It’s the only water they have to drink, fetched from filthy rivers, stagnant swamps, and dangerous holes in the ground. It’s water filled with parasites, animal waste and disease.

From Water Aid: 

"Toilets Save Lives. One simple solution, one life-changing gift. Will you be a lifesaver too?

Elisabeth works in a corner of Burkina Faso’s capital city, in an area called Zongo. It’s a hot, dusty place to live, filled with families trying to make a living in the city.

Many families living here don’t have access to a decent toilet – like one in three people around the world.

Living without a toilet means that families have no option but to relieve themselves outside their home, running the risk of carrying germs back inside and spreading potentially fatal diseases like diarrhoea and cholera. Children are especially vulnerable to diarrhoeal diseases, which kill 4,975 children under five in Burkina Faso each year.

Help pay for the materials to build a toilet that will keep a family safe

Your gift will do something truly life-saving. It will help provide the basic tools and materials that families need to build their own toilet, helping to keep their family safe for years to come."

Thank you for reading this entry.

Help make it happen

Swimmers hit the near freezing water at Blackroot Pool in Sutton Coldfield Credit: Express & Star

Whether braving the icy waters on Christmas Day,

Escaping the summer heat in China.                                                                  Credit: Telegraph

escaping the Summer heat,

Do you shower or bathe every day?                                                                   Credit: Guardian

taking a shower,

How on earth can I use a Canadian toilet without splashing myself?                      Credit: Travel

or simply doing what comes naturally.

Millions of people around the world do not have the luxury of choice. Dirty water and inadequate sanitation spreading disease which leads to the early death of over 1,400 children a day.

This is the reality for over 750 million people who live without safe water.

Two and a half billion people don't have access to adequate sanitation, one in three of the world's population.

Over 500,000 children die every year from diarrhoea caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation.

WaterAid need our support to gather 100,000 signatures to get taps and toilets to everyone, everywhere by 2030. Please help by signing their petition #MAKEITHAPPEN.

They are half-way there.

Child of Mine

From WaterAid UK:

Jacinta's family is just one of the thousands affected by the lack of clean, safe water in Mozambique. Full story here.

World Water Day 2014

World Water Day: 22 March 2014

"Safe water transforms lives."

From WaterAid:

In the UK, it’s easy to take it for granted: yet 768 million people around the world have no clean water to drink. Follow this link for details.

You can add your name to an online form or tweet your support for a world where everyone, everywhere has clean water, sanitation and hygiene by 2030. Then on 19 and 20 March in London’s Canary Wharf, your name will be cascading down a waterfall alongside thousands of others to help raise awareness of the water and sanitation crisis.

On Monday 24 March, WaterAid will be taking the names to the House of Lords where WaterAid supporters will be meeting MPs and parliamentarians to show them the strength of public support for increasing efforts to reach everyone, everywhere by 2030.

WaterAid #BigPipeProject

From WaterAid

(Click on the image for the full story)

"By acting together we will make a difference."

If you want to help to make a difference, click on "Join this Thunderclap" (above).

International Development (Gender Equality) Bill

Never mind the self-centred rhetoric of WATCH, women worldwide really can be helped by responding to this request from WaterAid:

Will you ask your MP to support the International Development (Gender Equality) Bill? There are two things your MP can do:

• attend an event on 5 September to find out more 
• attend the reading in Parliament on 13 September to show their support 

What is the bill?
The bill would be an addition to the UK International Development Act (2002). It would mean that, in future, the International Development Secretary must consider the impact that UK international development aid will have on the equality of men and women.

Why is this important?
WaterAid supports this bill because we can't reach a world where everyone has safe water and sanitation without addressing gender inequality.

For example, women and girls spend 40 billion working hours every year collecting water in Sub-Saharan Africa alone. Women and girls are particularly vulnerable to the risk of assault when practicing open defecation. A lack of toilets in schools has a greater impact on girls' progress in education, causing many to drop out when they start menstruating.

How to contact your MP
You can email your MP to ask them to support the Bill using our suggested message – it will only take you a minute.

Thank you so much for your support.

With best wishes,  

                               

Rebecca Owen                                                                          
WaterAid Campaigns

World Water Day 2013

Down in the dumps with rain, rain, rain and flood alerts or, as friends in New Zealand tell me, no rain and water restrictions? Caught between these extremes are hundreds of millions of people without access to clean water and proper sanitation, a problem for Everyone, everywhere.

Today, 22 March 2013 is World Water Day. WaterAid's goals are set out in this short film

As WaterAid says, "this is our best chance in 15 years to put water and sanitation at the heart of global efforts to tackle poverty — so please email your MP today and ask them to urge David Cameron to read WaterAid's Everyone, everywhere report". 

Our support can make a difference.

Over 120,000 children killed during election campaign

Readers of The Independent may have spotted that April 25^th was World Malaria Day, the only British sourced reference I have managed to find.

While our politicians squabble over which party is better placed to deliver the fat of the land to British citizens, in other countries over a million people die every year from malaria. Every 30 seconds a child dies, killed by a mosquito bite. During the six weeks of the election campaign over 120,000 children will have died even though these deaths are preventable. http://www.rollbackmalaria.org/worldmalariaday/index.html

Thanks largely to the efforts of the charity WaterAid all three main political parties have pledged to increase efforts to tackle the water and sanitation crisis. Whichever party wins the election it is one pledge that must be kept. http://www.wateraid.org/uk/default.asp