25 years: 1981 - 2006

WaterAid is celebrating its achievements over the last 25 years.

Credits (clockwise from top right): WaterAid/Jim Holmes, WaterAid/Julia Lloyd, WaterAid/Nigel Tarling.

WaterAid was established in 1981, at the start of the first UN decade of drinking water and sanitation.

View this slideshow of highlights from our first 25 years.

By the end of 1985 WaterAid had funded projects in Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Kenya, Bangladesh, Nepal, India and The Gambia.

By 1987 WaterAid's yearly income had topped £1 million and in 1988 it was announced that since WaterAid's establishment over 350,000 people had benefited from its projects.

Since then, we have grown to become one of the most respected international NGO's dealing solely with water, sanitation and hygiene issues.

To date, WaterAid has helped over nine million people gain access to safe, clean water, and has achieved much more along the way.