Oasis Spring Summer 2012

Spring/Summer 2012

Your WaterAid magazine

Turn on the taps

How your support is flowing across Rwanda

Coast Along

Walk for water along the UK’s stunning coast

Water Works! ...so tell world leaders today!

Welcome to Oasis

Dear WaterAid supporter, WaterAid/Abir Abdullah

Small is beautiful. We’ve redesigned your magazine so it’s more compact, making it cheaper to produce and quicker for you to see how your support is transforming lives. Read on for photos and stories from Nepal, Uganda and Bangladesh and lots of ways of getting involved in your local area.

Barbara Frost Chief Executive

Edited by Tom Burgess Designed by Progression (progressiondesign.co.uk)

WaterAid transforms lives by improving access to safe water, hygiene and sanitation in the world’s poorest communities.

WaterAid 47-49 Durham Street London, SE11 5JD T: 020 7793 4594 Registered charity numbers 288701 (England and Wales) and SC039479 (Scotland) Cover image: A woman walks miles to find safe water in Bangladesh.

Go to page 14 to see more. WaterAid/GMB Akash/Panos Pictures

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Oasis Spring/Summer 2012

Save paper, save money Each copy of Oasis costs 11p to produce plus P&P. Sign up to get Oasis by email at supportercare @wateraid.org

For news, films and to have your say, find us on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

HRH Prince Charles visits our work in Tanzania

H

Clarence House

is Royal Highness, WaterAid’s President, got a fantastic reception from with locals in Dar es Where your Salaam who spoke of money goes the change that a new In every £1 we spend water source had 23p on fundraising and brought to their lives governance, and 77p on and community. delivering services and www.storify.com/ influencing decision- clarencehouse/ makers. day-8-tour-blog

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Choose water, choose life Contents

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f you live in the north of England, Choose life. watch out for our campaign appearing on ITV, Channel 4 and in Choose life. the press throughout March. We tell the story of Jean and Concilia from Rwanda, who, £1 like millions of others, have no choice but to drink water that could kill them. The campaign aims to raise more vital funds for our work.

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RRB-ELKE Freepost RRRZ-Y WaterAid .. give, we spend.

MELKSHAM For every £1 you SN12 6YY e work

WaterAid/Zute Lightfoot

77p on our programm

Thank you for choosing life

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22p on fundraising * 1p on governance

we raise £4.27 spend on fundraising, *For every £1 we WaterAid’s Annual Report 2010/11). from (figures taken

Simple.

4 Water Works 6 Coast Along 8 Special report: Nepal 10 Technology: gravity flow water system 12 Barbara Frost in Uganda 14 Bangladesh images 16 Turn on the taps appeal 18 Get involved

14/09/2011

11:13

Oasis Spring/Summer 2012

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Campaigns

O

ur new global campaign urges governments to do more to tackle the water and sanitation crisis. We want to show world leaders that taps and toilets are cheap, simple and life-saving.

to urge International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell to show leadership by attending the crucial High Level Meeting of the Sanitation and Water for All partnership in Washington DC this April.

A truly global effort In Nigeria, the campaign featured on primetime news, while in Madagascar, national music icon Sameola performed at the launch event. Here in the UK, thousands of you contacted or visited your MPs. You asked them

Your support makes a difference We were delighted when WaterAid supporter Pat Spry received a letter from Andrew Mitchell confirming that he plans to attend the meeting. This is great news and shows that your voices are being heard.

“If we don’t get the foundations of water and sanitation right the rest of the blocks we lay will keep falling down and the house we build will be unfit to live in.”

Gordon, WaterAid supporter, Market Drayton 4

Oasis Spring/Summer 2012

Join global supporters and take action now www.wateraid.org/waterworks

What is the Sanitation and Water for All High Level Meeting?

The meeting will bring together developing country governments and aid-giving governments so they can coordinate their efforts to achieve universal access to water and sanitation.

What can I do now?

1

Fill in the enclosed postcard - we will present your message to world leaders!

2

Go to our website and join supporters from across the world to learn more about the campaign.

3

Share our amazing film and infographic.

www.wateraid.org/waterworks Oasis Spring/Summer 2012

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Coast Along for WaterAid

Walking for water M

illions of people around the world have no choice but to walk for hours every day to collect essential water for themselves and their families. The burden often falls to women and children who have to walk an average of 6km for water they know will make them ill. In urban areas people have no choice but to collect water from polluted waterways or pay sky-high prices to buy it from vendors.

This lack of access to clean water and safe sanitation impacts severely upon health, education, and income.

Like many women across the developing world, Mariama Ourmarou Dicko from Mali is responsible for collecting water for her family.

“In the dry season I go out at 6am, at midday and in the evening to collect water,” she says. “Each journey takes three hours.”

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Oasis The WaterAid Journal Spring/Summer 2012

The water the women of Ourare Alaye Tem find at the end of their journey is often dirty and disease ridden. Along with poor sanitation, dirty water causes diseases that kill around 4,000 children every day.

There is something you can do to change this. Get walking for water and bring clean water, sanitation and hygiene education to Mariama and millions of people like her.

Coast Along for WaterAid aims to raise £150,000 by getting teams of walkers striding out on 240 sections of UK coastal path on Saturday 15 September 2012. With sections ranging from four to 15 miles in length – and with each path graded by difficulty – there is something for everyone.

“In the dry season I go out at 6am, at midday and in the evening to collect water. Each journey takes three hours.� (pictured with red bucket)

WaterAid

Mariama Oumarou Dicko from Mali

WaterAid/Layton Thompson

Register your interest today at www.coastalongforwateraid.org, email coastalong@wateraid.org or call 020 7793 2232

Oasis The WaterAid Journal Spring/Summer 2012

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Special report: Nepal

WaterAid/Tom Van Cakenberghe

Beautiful isolation

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Oasis Spring/Summer 2012

“I am often frightened that I may fall from the path. It’s narrow and steep. In the rainy season there are small landslides on the path which causes us more problems.” Jhalak Maya Damai, Tosramkhola, Nepal Meriel Armson, our Special Projects We intend to start work there in April but it will be particularly challenging.

Manager, recently returned from It’s a two day journey from Kathmandu an almost unimaginably remote along a route littered with the area of Nepal.

“T

his beautiful image is of Tosramkhola, a village we visited in the Sindhuli district. As you can see the landscape is breathtaking. However, after a few days living with the people of the community, it quickly became clear that this landscape is what makes it such a difficult place to live.

People have to make incredibly dangerous journeys along steep and narrow paths to fetch water. I made the journey myself and had to use both hands just to stay standing at points. Many people in the community have been severely injured by falling.

In addition to this the quality of the water gathered is poor, making diarrhoeal disease prevalent.

The people of Tosramkhola were hugely welcoming to me (left).

carcasses of trucks. Some of the boulders we drove over were so large it felt like our vehicle could tip over at any moment. The feeling wasn’t helped by the knowledge that one of our trucks actually came off the road last October, though no-one was hurt.

But it’s the inaccessibility that makes the work so essential. The communities I met are in such desperate need of sanitation and easily accessible water.

We’ve already had great success with the gravity flow scheme (overleaf) in other communities in Sindhuli and we know we can make it work in Tosramkhola with your support.

I’ll be in touch with many of you in the coming weeks with more information about this crucial work.

”

Jhalak Maya Damai (right, with her child and husband) broke her leg on the journey to collect water. Her husband had to carry for her for a full day just to reach the nearest vehicle.

Oasis Spring/Summer 2012

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Technology

Gravity flow water system T

“We used to have to walk for an hour to get to the source and then we often had to queue for four or five hours until it was our turn to collect water.�

Akeza Hadish, at a gravity-fed water point, Korkora, Tigray, Ethiopia.

10 Oasis Spring/Summer 2012

The spring or stream is tapped, dammed and fenced off to prevent contamination.

The reservoir tank stores enough water based on the community’s needs.

Where possible, the main pipeline is laid in a trench to protect it from damage.

Tapstands are placed around the village to reduce the distance people have to carry water.

WaterAid/Caroline Irby

his technology is often used in hilly, rural areas where people used to have to carry water long distances over steep terrain.

Our partners tap a spring or dam a small unpolluted stream and the water flows downhill into storage tanks.

These tanks then feed tapstands in the heart of the community. The power of gravity means there is no need for expensive pumps, so the overall costs are low.

Buy a gravity flow system Pipes cost just ÂŁ18 and tapstands ÂŁ100. Go to www.wateraid.org/ shop

Illustration by peter-mac.com

To download free posters of the technologies we use, go to www.wateraid.org/technology

Oasis Spring/Summer 2012 11

Barbara Frost in Uganda

The simple things in life Last November, our Chief Executive Barbara Frost saw for herself how ordinary facilities in Uganda are having extraordinary impacts.

“E

very time I visit an urban slum community I find myself shocked at the challenges people face and inspired by the way they meet them. Everyone’s health and dignity is compromised by the lack of sanitation in the densely crowded streets of Kawempe in the Ugandan capital. Here, for women in particular, a decent latrine can transform their lives.

Nalongo is the caretaker of a new public toilet for local households and market vendors. She told me that in the past community members used buckets and plastic bags as toilets, dumping them on garbage collection points. She said, “Ever since the toilet was constructed, community members no longer live with that shame”.

What’s more, the toilet means that local women like Nalongo no longer have to wait for the cover of darkness to relieve themselves outside, putting

12 Oasis Spring/Summer 2012

their health and safety at risk, not to mention their pride.

Simple solutions were also making a big difference when I visited the Equator primary school in rural Mpigi district. Like many schools across the country, Equator used to lack decent, private facilities and adolescent girls often missed school during menstruation or dropped out altogether.

After her classmates had sung us a wonderful welcome song, I met Hope, who leads the school health club. She told me how two new

“Ever since the toilet was constructed, community members no longer live with that shame.”

Nalongo, public toilet caretaker

Read my blog and watch short films from my trip at www.wateraid.org/ugandablog simple, cheap facilities, like a proper toilet or somewhere private to wash, is all it takes to help them break the cycle of poverty and disease. There’s a long road ahead in Uganda but your vital continued support for our work means that the future is looking better all the time.

�

WaterAid/James Kiyimba

latrine blocks and shower rooms had now given girls somewhere safe and private to go to the toilet and wash sanitary pads. This is vital for girls like Hope to finish their education and look forward to a healthy, productive life.

Nalongo and Hope prove that

Nalongo, me and Alice, our representative in Uganda

Last year in Uganda we reached 59,000 with safe water and 24,000 people with sanitation. Around 26,000 Ugandan children die of diarrhoeal diseases every year.

Oasis Spring/Summer Uganda 2012 13

Bangladesh

In this densely populated country, extreme poverty and climatic vulnerability leaves tens of millions of people without safe water or sanitation.

Our work continues to have a huge impact but the need remains great.

1 Mollar Slum in the capital Dhaka is home to around 15,000 people. The water from these illegal pipes is not safe.

14 Oasis Spring/Summer 2012

2 In Satkhira, severe sea-floods have contaminated most water sources, forcing people to walk miles to find a safe supply.

In Bangladesh last year we reached 215,000 people with water and 453,000 with sanitation. www.wateraid.org/bangladesh 1

2

WaterAid/GMB Akash/Panos Pictures

3

3 Ambia is a widow living with her son in

Dhaka. She buys water from an illegal tank, but even this water is regularly making her son too ill to go to school.

Oasis Spring/Summer 2012 15

Turn on the taps appeal

WaterAid Zute Lightfoot

The sky’s the limit!

Josephine with her class paying full attention!

E

very cloud really does have a silver lining in the skies above Rwanda. A huge rainwater harvesting tank at Juru Primary School, built thanks to your support, provides a constant safe water supply to over 1,000 students.

In the past, children and their families had to make a three-hour round trip to collect water from a river that is not only dirty, but also inhabited by hippos and crocodiles in the rainy season.

16 Oasis Spring/Summer 2012

“The water has been like a miracle for us – the children are very clean now.”

Eugenie Mukankundiye, hygiene teacher

www.wateraid.org/rwanda

“Now our students have clean water they have more time to study and we can have clean toilets and classrooms.”

Josephine Twizeyimana, teacher (pictured left with her class)

Rwanda of the Rwanda Government and we are working with them on plans to roll out similar technology to schools across the country – a fantastic example of how your support can have huge impacts in one of the poorest countries in the world.

WaterAid Zute Lightfoot

Thankfully, they no longer have to make that journey. The children are able to spend all day at school, where they also attend a hygiene education club learning how to keep themselves and the school clean.

This project has caught the attention

Monique pumps water so Viete can wash her hands.

“We used to get dirty water from the lake. We would go to collect before school and would bring water with us. There was never enough.

Many times I would have to miss school.”

Monique, student

Oasis Spring/Summer 2012 17

Get involved in 2012 April

22 April

Throughout April at Aveda stores nationwide you can experience ‘The Ritual of Relaxation’ for a minimum donation of £3, with all proceeds donated to WaterAid. The ritual starts with a sensory breathing exercise to initially relax, followed by an invigorating exfoliating hand cleansing and finishes with a pressure point massage, leaving you feeling renewed!

If you have your own place, we would love to have you on the WaterAid Team and give you all the support you need.

Virgin London Marathon

For your nearest Aveda store visit www.aveda.co.uk

WaterAid

Earth month at Aveda

Belu, the UK’s Email: most ethical water events@wateraid.org brand, gives all its profits to WaterAid 23-29 April 28 May and is on sale soon at Sainsbury’s!

Run part of the 2012 Olympic Marathon route Support WaterAid’s work in Tanzania: visit a and take in some of participating coffee shop offering products that London’s most famous support Project Waterfall, bring UK Coffee landmarks. Sign up today Week into your workplace, or take part in to get your place!

The Big Challenge sponsored walk.

Visit: www.wateraid.

UK Coffee Week

BUPA 10,000

Visit: www.ukcoffeeweek.com

org/london10k

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We need you! Come along and help at our WaterAid events! We are always looking for volunteers to help cheer on and support our teams.

Call 020 793 2232 or email events@wateraid.org for more information.

WaterAid 200 WaterAid 200 is our brand new mountain challenge for 2012! The event aims to put a team of walkers on 200 mountains on the same day.

Visit www.wateraid200.org Email: wateraid200@wateraid.org

15 September

Coast Along for WaterAid

A stunning 55 mile challenge along the Rob Roy Way in Scotland. Get a team together to walk the first 16 miles, then switch to bikes for the final 39 mile cycle.

Visit: www.robroychallenge.com Email: events@wateraid.org

Take part in Coast Along for WaterAid – our national walking event.

With over 200 sections of coastal path across the UK there really is something for everybody!

Visit: www.coastalong forwateraid.org

6-9 July

16 September

23 June

Rob Roy Challenge

6 Peaks challenge Labyrinth Photography/Neil Mercer

WaterAid/Marco Betti

16 June

50 miles to walk, 20,000 feet to ascend, 1,000 miles to drive and two sea crossing all within 72 hours! Sign up now!

Visit: www.wateraidsixpeakschallenge.org.uk

Great North Run The world’s biggest half marathon with over 54,000 participants running from Newcastle to South Shields.

Email: greatnorthrun@ wateraid.org Call: 0845 120 1293 Oasis Spring/Summer 2012 19

Bracing/glorious/ windswept/ sand/shingle/ bluebirds/ cliffs* *Delete as applicable.

On Saturday 15 September do a sponsored walk on one of 240 UK coastal paths and help transform lives. www.coastalongforwateraid.org