Water is an essential part of life, that we are fortunate enough, to take for granted in this country. Due to our economic developments; the squalor and disease that still affects one billion lives around the globe has long been eradicated in Britain. The advances that have made this country extremely prosperous; such as health, education and employment opportunities, can not be sustained without access to water.

It would be unthinkable to be burdened with the daily task of walking miles to the nearest stream, to extract enough water just to have a wash. Many people in developing countries have to continue to make such trips to fetch water throughout the day. The average person in Britain uses about 104 litres of domestic water each day.

Steve Olaniya, from Nigeria, describes the daily fights and squabbles for water as part of his former daily life. “In my village, my dad leaves the water tap running so that other people can collect water. There is always a fight or this scarce resource”. Part of the problem that causes water scarcity in Nigeria is the lack of stable electricity, which hinders the process of pumping water from the ground. Steve discusses another dimension: “Water has become big business, people can sell water for 10p a bucket (in British equivalents), and water companies are exploiting the scarcity in the country”. Steve is relatively lucky has he does not have to travel for miles to go and bath, wash clothes and drink from dirty streams that are also used by animals.

The rich nations have devised a set of targets which are due to be met by 2015. The Millennium Development Goals are being used to improve the health and living standards of the world’s poorest countries. The problem is the amount of effort that policy makers, funders, charities and development agencies are making to the assist in the current situation.

By 2025 it is expected that 3.4 billion people will be living in countries defined as water- scarce. With 5,000 children dying every day from dirty water and inadequate sanitation, if the MDGs are to be met, we would need to bring clean water to 300,000 people and sanitation to 450,000 people each day, for the next ten years.

An instrumental organisation that has been in existence since 2005 is helping to bring water to many countries in southern Africa. One Water, a Global Ethics company has created a brand of water which promises to use all of the profits to build water pumps. One Water has installed over 100 Play Pumps, mainly built next to schools, so children can play and collect water which allows pupils to attend vital education classes. One Water suggest: “In order to meet the United Nations MDG of halving water scarcity in Africa by 2015, UK bottled buyers would only need to purchase three bottles of One Water a week, and water scarcity would be halved by 2015”. One Water was set up due to some alarming facts: “One billion people in the world don’t have access to clean water. Two million people die each year from drinking contaminated water. 40 billion hours a year are wasted walking to collect water – an average of five hours per person per day”.

According to The Department for International Development: “It would cost about an extra £5 billion each year until 2015 to reach the MDG target of halving the proportion of people without access to safe water and sanitation. That is about half the amount rich countries spend on bottled water each day”.

More needs to be done in promoting the work that organisations like WaterAid achieve within developing countries. Sometimes we need more ingenious ways of raising money and getting the message across that we can make a difference. Another person who is trying to raise awareness of the world water crisis is Emma Jones, founder of DJAid. Emma felt aggrieved by the fact that: “When people do not have access to water, they can not live”. She wanted to combine her passion for strong causes with dance music and going to parties. Emma saw that: “There is no charity that works with electronic music” and furthermore “young people care about global issues”. Her aim is to bring together different communities, not only in the music sector but public, private and commercial sectors who will contribute to the cause. The money that would be raised will support the work of Water Aid; a charity that: “works in 17 counties providing water, sanitation and hygiene education to some of the world’s poorest people”.

Water scarcity is caused when the demand upon the water supply exceeds the amount available. There are various causes that affect the water supply but many can be alleviated with proper resourcing and infrastructure. One thought to remember is that the amount of water in the world is limited. The human race, and the other species which share the planet, cannot expect an infinite supply.