As well as poor health and unnecessary deaths from a lack of safe drinking water, the burden of collecting clean water means women and children globally lose 200 million productive hours each and every day. These are hours that could be spent in school or earning and income for the family.
Although safe drinking water remains a priority for the LFT, it only builds part of the picture. Access to water is also vital for hygiene and for ensuring food security.
The LFT carefully tailors approaches in each country to plan sustainable water supply schemes in playing our part in the solution. Our work on water includes:
- Eliminating unnecessary deaths particularly in children under five from drinking unsafe water through the provision of community based water supplies including wells, piped supplies, solar and powered desalination plants in Iraq, Ethiopia, Zanzibar, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
- Enabling girls to attend school with dignity and in safety through hygiene education and promotion campaigns coupled with access to toilets in Ethiopia and Zanzibar.
- Empowering communities to farm in a sustainable manner by deploying solar water pumps and solar desalination and filtration systems. The LFT has enabled hundreds of farmers produce and increase their crop yields on over 100 small holdings of <2 acres in Pakistan Ethiopia and Zanzibar to large scale farms of over 100 acres in Kenya.
