Image: Arlette Bashizi/Oxfam
How Oxfam helps provide clean safe water
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We are providing clean water when disaster strikes
Disease follows disasters, often killing more people than the initial emergency. So Oxfam acts quickly with others to provide clean water and sanitation, and help prevent deadly diseases spreading.
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We are helping millions stay safe and earn a living
It’s not just taps, tanks and toilets — though with millions of litres of water pumped each year, they’re something to shout about. It’s also sharing advice in schools on how to keep clean and stay safe. Installing irrigation systems to kickstart farming, fight famine and help people earn a living.
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We are campaigning for access to safe water and toilets
Too often, people have no choice but to drink dirty, unsafe water, and to use toilets, taps and containers that spread disease. That's why we campaign for everyone to be able to access the water we all need.
The impact of our work
Water: the bigger picture
2.2billion
2.2 billion people do not have access to clean water at home.
800children
Every day, more than 800 children under 5 die from diarrhoea caused by dirty water.
2.3billion
2.3 billion people lack access to basic facilities like toilets.
Getting safe clean water flowing worldwide
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The famous Oxfam Water Tank, first deployed more than 40 years ago, is now used all over the world.
Oxfam’s technical team use water tanks used by British farmers for water storage in emergencies. The first ones were put into use in 1976. Today, more than 40 years after they were invented, humanitarian agencies around the world use the Oxfam water tank.
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Oxfam worked with Surrey University to produce the Delagua water testing kit.
In emergencies, the water we source needs to be tested before it can be used. This kit has been designed to enable local communities to check whether the water is contaminated, and make sure the chlorine level is safe for drinking.
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Oxfam provided safe drinking water for hundreds of thousands of people fleeing the Rwanda genocide.
Between 1994 and 1996, in the largest operation in our history, Oxfam provided safe drinking water for hundreds of thousands of refugees in Tanzania and Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) within days of their arrival - and until they went home over a year later.
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Zimbabwe: thousands of jerry cans sourced. Countless lives saved.
In Zimbabwe in early 2009, in a country already reeling from food shortages, a cholera outbreak threatened thousands of lives. Our rapid response team got there fast. In the town of Ngoni, we provided families with hygiene kits including 20 litre jerry cans, one kilogram of soap, water purification tablets, cotton wool and pamphlets on how to prevent cholera. Simple, brilliant, life-saving solutions.
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These worms save lives. Oxfam's Tiger Worm Toilets turn waste into fertiliser.
We first started developing our amazing Tiger Worm toilets in 2013. The worms decompose the waste and turn it into clean, safe fertiliser. Which means better sanitation and fewer health problems for poor communities and refugee camps around the world. It's just one of the ingenious ways Oxfam is helping people escape poverty, for good.
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Our frontline staff are helping thousands of Rohingya refugees fight Coronavirus.
In Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh, where Rohingya people are living in extremely overcrowded conditions, we stepped up our work on hygiene promotion, soap distribution and sanitation facilities to help 70,000 refugees.
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Water for 100,000 people in Central African Republic
To help stop the spread of the coronavirus, our teams on the field are installing 20 temporary emergency water points in the Central African capital, which will be gradually replaced by 10 permanent boreholes, so that nearly 100,000 people will have access to clean water.