Get InvolvedWater & Sanitation
One in eight people do not have access to safe water and 2.5 billion people live without adequate sanitation services. This crisis not only results in the deaths of over 2 million people every year but affects the quality of life of billions across the developing world. Instead of attending school or earning money, people (usually women and girls) are forced to spend their time walking for miles searching for water which often is not safe to use anyway.
Integrated interventions including provision of clean water and sanitation facilities along with training on safe hygiene practices such as the simple act of hand washing can save millions of lives and help families to break out of the poverty cycle.
The United Nations have already set targets to combat water & sanitation poverty in the Millennium Development Goals including halving the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015, and integrating sanitation into water resources management strategies. Despite this, a huge task still remains to be carried out.
MADE in Europe provided training for a group of young people on water purification techniques as part of the Act Global project. Volunteers from this project have travelled to Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Haiti to work with disaster-affected communities who are without safe water as a result of displacement, destroyed water infrastructure or simply because they did not have access to water even before the disaster took place.
Working alongside these communities has inspired the Act Global volunteers to spread the word about the water crisis. On World Water Day 2010 representatives attended a meeting with Conservative Shadow Minister for International Development Andrew Mitchell MP as part of the End Water Poverty Coalition to demand urgent and effective action to tackle these issues. Volunteers also spoke at the Emerald Network Green Thursdays event on 1 April 2010 to young Muslim professionals about the importance of clean water & sanitation with a demonstration of the Trekker water purification unit which was used following the Haiti earthquake.
Integrated interventions including provision of clean water and sanitation facilities along with training on safe hygiene practices such as the simple act of hand washing can save millions of lives and help families to break out of the poverty cycle.
The United Nations have already set targets to combat water & sanitation poverty in the Millennium Development Goals including halving the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015, and integrating sanitation into water resources management strategies. Despite this, a huge task still remains to be carried out.
What is MADE in Europe doing?
MADE in Europe provided training for a group of young people on water purification techniques as part of the Act Global project. Volunteers from this project have travelled to Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Haiti to work with disaster-affected communities who are without safe water as a result of displacement, destroyed water infrastructure or simply because they did not have access to water even before the disaster took place.
Working alongside these communities has inspired the Act Global volunteers to spread the word about the water crisis. On World Water Day 2010 representatives attended a meeting with Conservative Shadow Minister for International Development Andrew Mitchell MP as part of the End Water Poverty Coalition to demand urgent and effective action to tackle these issues. Volunteers also spoke at the Emerald Network Green Thursdays event on 1 April 2010 to young Muslim professionals about the importance of clean water & sanitation with a demonstration of the Trekker water purification unit which was used following the Haiti earthquake.
Take action
Read more about water & sanitation issues on Water Aid’s website here.
Read about what Islam says about water & sanitation here.
Join the End Water Poverty campaign here.
If you would like the Act Global volunteers to deliver a workshop at your school, university, mosque or youth group, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .