What we advocate

1. As water is a human right, how does WaterAid use this to ensure water for all?

2. What is WaterAid's position on the privatisation of water companies in the developing world?

3. What does WaterAid think about the financing of the water and sanitation sector?

4. Does WaterAid have an environmental policy?

1. As water is a human right, how does WaterAid use this to ensure water for all?

WaterAid lobbied to establish the right to water, which was declared by the UN in 2002, and is now working to help the world's poorest people achieve that right in the following ways:

• Helping our partner organisations in the countries where we work to understand and promote the right to water and lobby their governments to allocate further resources to these basic services through our Citizens' Action project.
• Defending the right to water with some governments which question whether there is sufficient mandate for water to be viewed as a right.
• Working with a range of other rights organisations to develop learning and understanding about the right to water.

Read our full position statement on the right to water.

2. What is WaterAid's position on the privatisation of water companies in the developing world?

WaterAid strongly believes that privatisation should not be imposed upon poor countries through aid conditions, trade rules or conditions for debt cancellation. Instead, national and local governments must manage and regulate water and sanitation services and ensure the accountability of the public, community or private organisations delivering them.

WaterAid believes there is not one single solution to ensuring everyone gains access to water and sanitation, so it is impossible to say in general terms whether it is a good idea for private, public or community organisations to be involved in the delivery and management of services.

Each set of circumstances should be looked at individually and a suitable pro-poor, affordable and sustainable solution found to fit each community.

Read our full position statement on private sector participation.

3. What does WaterAid think about the financing of the water and sanitation sector?

To reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of halving the proportion of people without access to safe water or sanitation by 2015 some £16.25 billion needs to be spent annually.

However only £7.6 billion is currently spent annually which is why WaterAid is lobbying to double financing from all sources.

Correcting the present under-investment in the sector cannot be justified unless the financial waste which goes on is also eliminated. Therefore WaterAid not only lobbies for more aid but also for improvements in how and where it is spent.

Read our full position statement on financing the sector.

4. Does WaterAid have an environmental policy?

WaterAid seeks to minimise the environmental impact of its country programmes and support activities through the following measures:

The impact of climate change is being felt disproportionately by the world's poorest communities, who are most vulnerable to the effects of falling water tables, flooding and drought. In order to reduce the stress on water quality, quantity and availability we are investing in the expansion of water resource management initiatives in order to minimise pollution and increase the sustainability of water sources. At local level this can be through projects that collect rainwater for drinking, planting trees or digging water recharge pits to help slow water run off. Wastewater from community water supplies is also used to water plants in kitchen gardens. 

WaterAid is also forming alliances with other organisations with specialist knowledge of water resource management in order to ensure the voices of poor communities are heard in discussions about management at water basin and national level. 

Good sanitation helps to prevent water sources from being contaminated and composting latrines are now being implemented in many of WaterAid's programmes, which safely renew human waste as compost and so increase the soil fertility without using harmful or expensive fertilisers.

Read more on the environmental sustainability of our work.

Meanwhile, at our head office in London, we are working to improve our carbon footprint. We use many eco-friendly products and are printing more of our resources on recycled paper.

We also collect old mobile phones, which raise money for WaterAid, by either being re-used in developing countries or having their parts recycled in an environmentally friendly way which avoids the dangerous substance cadmium, found in phone batteries, ending up in landfill sites.

Find out how you can recycle your phone for WaterAid.