Did you know that 1 billion people in the world don’t have access to clean water? Or that 2 million people die each year as a result of water related diseases?

So, 1 billion people without clean water, 2 million deaths each year, but actually the bigger problem is that people spend an average of 5 hours a day walking to collect water. That's around 40 billion hours a year. Imagine what your day would be like if you spent 5 hours walking to your local shop for a drink. Wouldn't get much done would you? It's the same in developing countries. Kids don't go to school and adults can't look after their crops or families properly.

When we found this out we wanted to do something to change those figures.

We recognise that it’s a massive challenge and we’ll be filling dams with our little fingerrs, but we can change the lives of people – one person, one day at a time.

So after getting back from South Africa Ama and I decided to re-introduce ourselves with some of those we had met in Johannesburg- most notably Trevor Field.

We could have sat on our backsides and done nothing, we could have listened to officers who purport that NUS shouldn’t work on International Issues, but we've seen the impact of a little bit of money used in the right way.

By supporting to install PlayPumps™ in villages not only do we ensure people get clean water, but because it's readily available it means time isn't wasted collecting water – and that's great because the kids go to school to get an education and the adults look after their crops and families.

So back to Trevor, it’s fair to say that he and his team had significant success through this initial work and raised significant amounts of sponsorship, aid and advertising but unsurprisingly they needed more. So “one” water was born (www.we-are-one.org.uk). In partnership with Global Ethics, “one” water is sold across the UK and was the official sponsor of LIVE8, bought in from Wales, not only does EVERY SINGLE PENNY of its profits go back to building the pumps but all bottles our recycled to make pens, pencils and paper which is sent directly back to schools in those areas of Africa. Well with endorsements like that I wanted us to unashamedly jump on the bandwagon.

I’m delighted to announce that this month NUS Services agreed to mine and Ama’s lobbying work and accepted to offer “one” water to SU’s. What is so incredibly important about this project is the examples we’ve seen in recent months. Manchester University has been selling the Water and within 3 months they had already raised enough cash to build a Playpump. Think how many pumps the Student Movement could build, collectively, together, by conference next year, Is that not worth supporting?!

Thanks you to NUSSL and the E&E committee for agreeing to this and also a big premature thanks to all those unions who’ll get on board and sell shed loads of “one” water for the people of Africa.

If you would any information on how to order “one” Water please contact NUSSL customer services, for all other questions email me at stephen.brown@nus.org.uk

Stephen

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