Barbara Frost interviews...

Douglas Alexander, UK Secretary of State for International Development

WaterAid's Chief Executive Barbara Frost finds out how the British Government is dealing with the water and sanitation crisis, and what they think of WaterAid.

Douglas Alexander and Barbara in conversation at his offices.

Credit: WaterAid / Layton Thompson

If you have signed one of our petitions in recent months or written to your MP you may have wondered if the message ever reaches the top. Does public pressure really influence the big decisions? I interviewed Douglas Alexander to find out.

Watch the interview here. 

First of all, I asked him where he put water and sanitation in his list of priorities. He said, "I think often in Britain we forget just how fundamental water and sanitation is to human dignity, to human decency, and to aspirations of people across the developing world."

To challenge this neglect, thousands of you have joined WaterAid in pushing the UK Government to talk taps and toilets and get behind a 'global framework for action on water and sanitation' – a way of galvanising international efforts to tackle the crisis. So, what did he think of your campaigning efforts?

"It's much easier as a government minister... if you have the support of the public behind you," he said. "It means you can sit down at international conferences and argue convincingly that other governments have a responsibility to act as well.

"It was partly the campaigning of organisations like WaterAid which moved me to make this commitment that we would first double and then double again the amount of money that we are spending on water and sanitation: an unprecedented five-year commitment of a billion pounds."

As we always say at WaterAid: nothing changes without campaigning. Your emails, letters, demonstrations and events have helped make the sanitation and water crisis impossible to ignore. We've come far, but there is still a long way to go.

So how can we all work together to ensure words are followed by action? The Secretary of State had a message for WaterAid supporters: "Vital as the money is, your engagement, your activism, and your concern also matters. And whether that's supporting the campaign work that WaterAid engages in, whether that's writing in to the Government or to members of parliament, whether it's asking questions at a public meeting, then I think there is a big contribution that everybody can make.

"I think resources and finances matter, but so do people of goodwill, conscience and concern. Those are really the only people who have ever changed the world, and I know at WaterAid you've got a lot of people like that."

To watch excerpts from Barbara's interview go to www.wateraid.org/douglasalexander