Water, sanitation and hygiene

What’s the solution?

We can’t fight life-threatening hunger and malnutrition without tackling the waterborne diseases that contribute to it. That’s why we bring safe water, sanitation, and hygiene services (known as WASH) to communities in need all over the world.

We’re bringing innovative clean water solutions to nearly 7 million people every year to prevent hunger and malnutrition.

We build and repair water points, toilets and latrines. We distribute water purification tablets and install water filters. We improve irrigation systems in rural communities.

And in homes and schools, we teach people about the importance of good hygiene.

By employing sophisticated geophysics, we are also able to locate water resources and tap aquifers. We protect natural springs and pipe water into villages and health centres.

Maintaining water supplies needs more than quick fixes

We work with communities to build local capacity and ownership to sustain water and sanitation improvements in the long run.

In “Water Committees”, elected community members manage and maintain water and sanitation systems we install. We also organise local health workers and volunteers to pass on good sanitation and hygiene practices to their neighbours.

Providing water in a crisis

Disasters can have an impact on water supplies.

So, in a crisis, we truck water into communities, repair water sources and install storage tanks and reservoirs. We drill new wells and fix and decontaminate unsafe ones. We install hand-pumps and protect natural springs. And pipe water into hard-to-reach villages and health centres.

Our specialists are trained to help different agencies and local authorities work together to get water and sanitation facilities up and running quickly. In so doing, we buy what we can from the local community to help strengthen the economy. This puts money and power in the hands of those communities we seek to help.

This means that we can bring life-saving water to communities at risk.