Saving Water, Saving Lives ~ WaterAid’s Big Dig And Fundraising Continues

With luck (like me) you’ve had a holiday this summer in a nice hotel.
If so, perhaps you saw a notice in your room from The Management, suggesting you might like to save water and other resources by not asking for new bedlinen every morning. Fair enough, it’s your choice one way or the other. But it does give pause for thought about how much water we all use, every day. So here are a few ideas about how that moment of reflection can give rise to positive action.

Could you find time on 15 September just to go for a walk, to support WaterAid?

That little pause for thought is where WaterAid’s continuing Big Dig work becomes so important. We should all,wherever we are, be able to benefit from clean water whenever we need it – and it’s very worrying that not everyone can enjoy that right and privilege.

News comes from WaterAid of the ways in which clean water is saving lives – like that of 8 month old baby Winard from Bokola village in Malawi, who began to have serious stomach upsets when he was weaned from the breast. For the first time, he had to drink the local water, collected from a scoop hole. Now his parents know that water must be boiled before it’s consumed, but the real solution will be to introduce properly piped clean water into the village, as soon as that can be done.

These stories can be repeated many times. The need is great and the response from people who care has been tremendous, as this Big Dig link to ‘meet’ the people of Kaniche and Bokola and follow their story, or to make a donation, very clearly demonstrates.

And of course the need for support continues, as, hopefully, you return from your well-earned summer holiday, fresh for new challenges.

WaterAid suggests you can help by
•Spreading the word – find out how here: Big Dig ~ Spread the Word
•Getting active, and walk for water so that others don’t have to. This year, WaterAid’s flagship walking event, Coast Along for WaterAid, is part of The Big Dig Appeal and, crucially, every pound raised in sponsorship will be matched by the UK Government from the aid budget, making double the difference in funding for the Malawi Big Dig programme.

But time is short and there are two deadlines for Big Dig work this year.  Malawi ia a country where 1 in 5 people have no supply of clean water, and nearly 1 in 2 must cope with the indignity of nowhere safe to go to the toilet.  The first deadline is the seasons. The rains will come in November. That rain will wash dirt into water sources and will spread diseases, making it impossible to dig and build.  But even more immediate is a political deadline. The UK Government has undertaken to match pound-for-pound all donations, but only until 18 September. 

Coast Along for WaterAid takes place on Saturday 15 September, just days before the political funding deadline, and supporters can choose to walk on one of over 200 spectacular coastal paths across the UK, or join group walks in 9 locations. Find out more here.

And by all means post a comment here, to tell us what you’re doing to support WaterAid’s Big Dig. Who knows? Others may want to join in, too.