Mana Rita, her family, and neighbours spend many hours every day collecting water. The river water is too cloudy to drink, so she digs a deep hole next to it and uses small pebbles as a filter - it is far from clear even when she has finished.
Long dry periods mean that the river dries to a trickle, making water collection even more difficult and time-consuming. But Mana Rita has no choice, without digging holes she has no water - and without water, her family can’t survive.
Give an urgent gift to help end the water crisis people like Mana Rita live with every day.
Mana Rita, her family and neighbours spend hours every day collecting water at her local river in Lauhata, Timor-Leste.
A few people from Mana Rita’s village are lucky enough to own a shovel to help them dig, but most dig the water holes by hand.
Unfortunately, a changing climate in countries like Timor-Leste means that these natural water sources are becoming less and less reliable.
WaterAid Australia is at the forefront of the battle to provide sustainable supplies of clean water and access to climate-resilient toilets.
In Timor-Leste, we’ve already started working with communities like Mana Rita’s, to pilot projects that increase availability of water by creating new reservoirs and ponds. We’ll also help locals to manage and conserve their water, so it lasts through dry seasons and isn’t contaminated during heavy rain and flooding.
Your gift will do more than supply clean water – it will help bring hope in the face of what can feel like an overwhelming challenge in our world.
About WaterAid
WaterAid has teams in 28 countries across the world, working with our partners to change millions of lives every year by improving access to clean water, toilets and hygiene.
Since 1981, we’ve reached over 27 million people with clean water. But we can’t stop there.
In the last 43 years, we’ve gone from strength to strength to become one of the most respected organisations dealing solely with water, sanitation and hygiene issues.
What do WaterAid do?
While installing taps and toilets is essential to our work, we do so much more. We convince governments to change laws, link policy makers with people on the ground, pool knowledge and resources and rally support from people and organisations around the world, making lasting change happen on a massive scale.