A gift for life

In the remote villages of the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh safe water and sanitation coverage can be as low as 5%.

Poor communities often have to walk up steep jungle paths to find water, or collect it from dugout holes or streams lower down closer to their villages. Even then women often have to walk for two kilometres to a water source and then, in the dry months, spend hours patiently waiting as water slowly seeps through holes in the ground.

Omitee collects water from the gravity-flow scheme in Silchari village in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

Credit: WaterAid / Abir Abdullah

But WaterAid has been working in 40 villages here with its partner Green Hill to change this. Thirty six tubewells have been dug and two gravity-flow schemes have been built, tapping springs in the jungle and piping it to villages below.

Three wells have been installed and 3000 new latrines have been constructed. There were also over 1200 hygiene sessions with both adults and children at school and the villages, with many more house to house follow up visits helping communities to change their hygiene habits.

While this project sounds vast, and many miles away, £18,000 was funded through the generosity of just one supporter. Mrs Margaret Jones supported WaterAid for ten years and left a residual legacy* to us in her Will. This meant that when Margaret sadly passed away in 2002 she could ensure her valuable support would continue to benefit future generations. In 2003 WaterAid received a third of her estate in her legacy.

This generous gift of £108,592 helped support three projects - the first in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, and others in the Bauchi State of Nigeria and in Hintalo Wajerat of Northern Ethiopia.

In total hundreds of thousands of people's lives have been transformed from these three projects and now 43,000 people have access to safe, clean water in their communities.

Leaving a legacy to WaterAid, whether large or small, will help transform the lives of people long into the future.

Making a Will is vitally important to ensure that your family and the people you care about are provided for in the future. Your family and dependants are, of course, your first concern, but gifts given to charity are tax-free, so extra money that would otherwise go to the Government can benefit this good cause instead.

A gift in your Will is an important decision and one you won't want to rush. If you decide to leave a legacy to WaterAid, and you have already made a Will, please complete a codicil** (available from WaterAid) and return it to your solicitor. If you have not yet made a Will and would like to include WaterAid, please contact your solicitor who will be able to help you.

If you would like to talk about your intentions or receive further information from us please call our Legacy Officer on 0845 6000 433.

This article is based on a genuine legacy received by WaterAid but the name of the legator has been changed to respect her family's privacy.

* A residuary legacy is a share of the estate. This type of legacy is very valuable as it usually maintains or increases value over time.
** A Codicil is a document which incorporates amendments to a Will, either by adding, deleting or altering provisions made in a Will.

WaterAid would like to be able to use legacy gifts where the need is greatest at that time. We would therefore ask that if you are kind enough to include WaterAid in your Will that you state that the legacy can be used wherever the need is greatest at that time.