WaterAid and End Water Poverty

End Watery Poverty: Sanitation and water for all.

Since March 2007, WaterAid has been campaigning alongside a number of other organisations as part of the End Water Poverty coalition.

What is End Water Poverty?

End Water Poverty is a growing international campaign that is supported by over 110 like minded organisations from across the world. The coalition is calling for immediate action to address the global sanitation and water crisis.

Why is WaterAid working in coalition?

WaterAid believes that when a wide range of organisations from all parts of the world join together to campaign with a 'collective voice', it sends a clear and powerful message to governments and other influential decision makers that is hard to ignore.

Several WaterAid country programmes have become really active in End Water Poverty including Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Mali, Nigeria, Ghana and Nepal.

What organisations are members of the End water Poverty coalition?

To name just a few: Care International, Oxfam, Plan International, Pump Aid, Sightsavers International, Tearfund, Unicef- UK, Unison and WWF. See the full list of End Water Poverty members

What successes has the campaign had to date?

The knitted river campaign was an innovative way of raising awareness.

Credit: Rebecca Reid

• UN High Level Event, New York, September 2008: Dutch and UK governments commited to holding an annual meeting to review progress on water and sanitation. At the event almost 1 million global End Water Poverty campaign actions were presented by coalition members to the Dutch Minister.
• G8, 2008: Incredible global campaigning efforts in support of End Water Poverty helped ensure that sanitation and water appeared on the 2008 G8 agenda and were included in the final declaration from the summit.
• Mali: WaterAid Mali officially launched a national End Water Poverty campaign in the presence of the President of the Republic, Amadou Toumani Tour.
• Nepal: In just 2 weeks over 100,000 signatures were collected around the country pledging support for the campaign and handed to the Prime Minister by coalition members.
• Bangladesh: Over 500,000 people from Bangaldesh have pledged support for the campaign, the largest number of actions from a single country.
• UK: The first major UK activity in support of the campaign resulted in almost 100,000 supporters knitting a blue square to pledge their support. Sewn together they made a giant knitted river petition, approximately 250 metres long. Ahead of the G8 summit in July 2007, hundreds of people marched on Downing Street carrying the knitted river petition demanding sanitation and water for all.

How can I support the campaign?

• If you are a member of an organisation, encourage them to become part of this growing coalition 
• Sign the End Water Poverty pledge. When pledging your support, tick the 'keep me informed' box to hear about the next campaign action in Spring 2009