2 March 2010

Thames Water's Chief Operating Officer has vowed to continue supporting WaterAid's work in Africa - after an emotional week in Tanzania seeing what life is like without the basic human rights of clean water and proper sanitation.

Steve Shine made the visit to see first hand how the charity plans to help 42,000 East Africans, by investing £630,000 raised by Thames Water at its Love Water Ball last summer.

But witnessing villages still to benefit from this donation was hard for him to fathom.

"Seeing first hand that thousands of people still live without such basic life essentials is really upsetting" said Steve, who is in charge of supplying 13.6 million people across London and the Thames Valley with top-quality water and sewerage services.

"It's particularly hard to accept, given my day job. After seeing women with children on their backs digging the sun-baked ground to install a water pipe, my immediate thought was to get on the phone and fly my teams over to help these people.

"I tried to picture what it would be like in London - seeing all our customers digging their own trenches. The water these women were fetching was absolutely filthy too."

Steve also visited areas where WaterAid's work to provide clean running water and safe sanitation had enabled villages and towns to prosper.

He said: "I had to understand that an essential part of WaterAid's work is to give people ownership of the new pipes and clean water. If I had flown my teams in to dig their trench, this would have provided a quick, short-term fix, but no long-term solution, which is what we're after.

"We also visited a town that had been transformed by having clean water and proper sanitation. One lady now has her waste taken away, rather than having to tip it into the streets. We also spoke to a school headmaster who explained that they kept the water tap padlocked - that was how precious the clean water was to people, and they respected that.

"Over 4,000 children die every day as a result of diseases caused by unclean water and poor sanitation, and yet just £15 can give someone access to safe water, improved hygiene and sanitation. Now I have witnessed the change it can make to people's lives, I want to raise a similar amount over the next year to help even more people."

Over the next year, WaterAid will use Thames Water's £630,000 donation to provide safe water, sanitation and hygiene education to people in the East Africa region, including Tanzania, Uganda and Ethiopia.

Andrew Cook, Director of Communications and Fundraising at WaterAid, said:

"This visit to Tanzania enabled us to show Thames Water exactly how their hard work and generosity has helped transform the lives of some of the world's poorest people, bringing safe water, sanitation and hygiene education to their communities.

"I'd like to thank everyone at Thames Water for their support over the past 29 years."