To mark World Water Day we've collected together insights into just some of the remarkable work being carried out by our WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) teams around the world.
Brian McSorley has blogged about some of the innovative solutions that Oxfam is piloting to help the poorest people in Kenya to access clean safe water or sanitation: tackling challenges that are faced in many countries globally. These initiatives... Read more
Drinking water across large areas of the East African Rift Valley, from Tanzania though Kenya and Ethiopia, contains excessive fluoride. In low concentrations fluoride has beneficial effects on teeth, but prolonged consumption of high-fluoride water leads to mottling and weakening of teeth, and even serious deformation of bone structure. Children are particularly susceptible.
Because fluoride has no taste, and because it is a chronic... Read more
It's important to have a strategy on how you will spend your time before you get to the World Water Forum - a massive global event held every three years, where experts get together to 'tackle the challenges' of the world's water crisis. I was one of around 25,000 delegates, and finding the space to voice your opinions proved to be challenging.
The forum itself is full of energy and a spirit of finding... Read more
Go to almost any rural area in Kenya and chances are you won't have to drive around for long to find a broken handpump. Whatever the make there's always a reason why it wasn't possible to fix - lack of funds, no spares, spares but no tools, technician was trained but left village, "We're waiting for the agency that installed it to come and fix it," etc, etc.
Pumps break, it's normal - isn't it?... Read more
The scale up
We moved staff and supplies into the area late last year in anticipation that a big influx of people could come as the fighting in Blue Nile intensified. In December we chartered three planes from Juba (the capital of South Sudan) to bring up staff, food, camping equipment, and equipment such as generators, submersible pumps and water pipes.
Since 5 January around 34,000 refugees have arrived. The first thing we did... Read more
You're unlikely to have missed the news that the world's population reached 7 billion people on 31 October and the subsequent commentary on resource implications for an increasingly crowded planet. Central to the debate is how this will impact on water security.
We recognise that we are entering an era of global scarcity with competition for land, water, and energy. Much has been said about the fair shares agenda in that proper... Read more