World Water Day 22 March 2011

World Water Day 22 March 2011

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Let me take this opportunity to say thank you for visiting my blog.

I acquired my passion for cycling only in the summer of 2010 whilst training for a London to Paris charity bike ride. I took inspiration from my Dad who cycled Lands End to John O'Groats in 2007 and decided to take to the bike to help raise money for those less fortunate than me. I've always been involved in fundraising for various charities from a young age. I only recently came across WaterAid, a charity who help provide water and sanitation to those without. The statistic deeply shocked me and so I started from scratch and trained for the 300 mile cycle between two of the greatest capitals in the world.

In the space of a year I have gone from not particularly liking bikes to been a keen cyclist. Here is my journey!

WaterAid




WaterAid works in 26 countries in Africa, Asia and the Pacific region to improve their quality of life through lasting improvements to water, sanitation and hygiene education using local skills and practical, sustainable technologies.


Global crisis
  •  One in eight of the world's population do not have access to safe water. (WHO/UNICEF)
  •  2.5 billion people in the world do not have access to adequate sanitation (WHO/UNICEF)
  •  one child every 20 seconds  dies from diarrhoea caused by unclean water and poor sanitation .This equates to 160 infant school classrooms lost every single day to an entirely preventable public health crisis. (WHO/WaterAid)


Sanitation
  • Diarrhoea kills more children every year than AIDS, malaria and measles combined. (WHO)
  • Children living in households with no toilet are twice as likely to get diarrhoea as those with a toilet. (WEDC)
  • Every year, around 60 million children in the developing world are born into households without access to sanitation. (UN Water)
  • One gram of human faeces can contain 10,000,000 viruses, 1,000,000 bacteria, 1,000 parasite cysts, 100 parasite eggs. (UNICEF)

Credit: WaterAid/ Jon Spaull

The Weight of Water

  • The weight of water that women in Africa and Asia carry on their heads is commonly 20kg, the same as the average UK airport luggage allowance. (HDR)
  • The average person in the developing world uses 10 litres of water every day for their drinking, washing and cooking. (WSSCC)
  • The average European uses 200 litres of water every day for their drinking, washing and cooking. North Americans use 400 litres. (HDR)
  • On current trends over the next 20 years humans will use 40% more water than they do now. (UNEP)
  • The annual cost of meeting the water and sanitation MDG targets up to 2015 is US$11.3 billion. (UN Water)
  • Europeans spend about US$10 billion on ice cream every year. (HDR)
  • No sub-Saharan African country is on-track to meet the sanitation MDG. (WHO/UNICEF)




Watar and sanitation in history 
  • South Korea made huge investments in water and sanitation during the 1960s, when its per capita income was the same as Ghana's, and during that decade, under-five mortality more than halved, while the number of medical staff stayed virtually the same. (WaterAid)
  • In the UK the expansion of water and sanitation infrastructure in the 1880s contributed to a 15 year increase in life expectancy in the following four decades. (HDR, 2006)

As water is a human right, how does WaterAid use this to ensure water for all?

WaterAid lobbied to establish the right to water, which was declared by the UN in 2002, and is now working to help the world's poorest people achieve that right in the following ways:
  • Helping our partner organisations in the countries where we work to understand and promote the right to water and lobby their governments to allocate further resources to these basic services through our Citizens' Action project.
  • Defending the right to water with some governments which question whether there is sufficient mandate for water to be viewed as a right.
  • Working with a range of other rights organisations to develop learning and understanding about the right to water.

                         Credit: WaterAid/ Jon Spaull

For a gift of just £15 WaterAid can provide one person in Africa or Asia with a lasting supply of safe, clean water, sanitation and hygiene education.

For more information on WaterAid and the invaluable work they do please click here.

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