Thames Water

Amy Dutton, Jayne Farrin, Lawrence Gosden and Jayne Farrin from Thames Water meet primary school children in Shakhipur

Credit: Thames Water

Thames4WaterAid

Thames Water is the UK's largest water and sewerage company. Every day, they supply 2,600 million litres of tap water to 8.8 million customers across London and the Thames Valley. They carry out over 400,000 tests per year to ensure drinking water meets stringent UK and European standards. They also remove and treat 2,800 million litres of sewage for an area covering 14 million customers.

WaterAid has a well established and successful partnership for 30 years with Thames Water, and employees, customers and business partners are encouraged to raised funds and awareness for WaterAid.

Thames Water employees organise a number of fundraising events throughout the year. Events include an annual raft race where teams battle it out on the river Thames, treasure hunts, race nights, quiz nights, golf days and pantomimes as well as participating in the London Marathon and conquering the Munro Challenge.

In June 2009 Thames Water hosted their second Love Water Ball which was held at Old Billingsgate in Central London with 1,000 guests. This memorable evening of dinner, dancing and celebrity entertainment was a phenomenal success raising £630,000 for WaterAid, the most ever raised at a single fundraising event!

Thames4Bangladesh

Amy Dutton from Thames Water meets a family who have benefitted from access to new latrines in a slum community.

Credit: Thames Water

In 2011 Thames Water has rejuvenated its relationship with WaterAid through the launch of a new four-year partnership that will support the delivery of safe water and sanitation to four towns in Bangladesh.

At the end of the four year partnership, over 55,000 people will have access to safe water and sanitation, transforming their lives forever.

To launch the partnership, four members of staff from Thames Water visited the towns in May 2011. They met with local councils, communities, market traders, families a hospital and a school to really understand the problems caused by a lack of access to safe water and sanitation.

In her blog of the trip, Thames Water employee Amy Dutton said: "Through spending time at Paikgacha hospital witnessing first-hand the seriousness of waterborne disease and then a number of days visiting the heart of the most poverty stricken slums has resulted in us all developing very deep and personal connections with the people that we met and will be helping."

The money raised by employees, suppliers and contractors raise will help to:

• Install mini pipe water systems, group water taps and hand pump tube wells
• Build community latrines, with separate stalls for men and women, in both public spaces and schools
• Renovate existing latrines and water facilities
• Establish solid waste management systems.

Click here to watch a film of Thames Water's visit to Bangladesh in 2011 

Find out more about Thames Water's support of these towns in Bangladesh, and ways that you can get involved: www.thameswater.co.uk/wateraid