Cash shortage threatens vital work of clean water charity

SCHOOLS and individuals in Derbyshire have been helping victims of natural disasters across the world by sending them life-saving boxes.

Groups have been supporting a charity which sends boxes of purifying tablets and filters that give families what they most urgently need – clean water.

But now cash for the work is drying up, with donations reaching their lowest level in seven years.

The Aquabox charity, run by Wirksworth Rotary Club, needs help in continuing and increasing its work in times of great demand.

Since it began in 1992, the charity has sent tens of thousands of boxes to areas where water supplies have been devastated by cyclones, tsunamis and earthquakes.

The boxes contain essential welfare items for towns hit by a disaster, such as cooking equipment, hygiene items and tools.

They also hold chlorine-based tablets and a carbon filter that can treat dirty water.

Polluted water is the cause of killer diseases such as typhoid, dysentery and cholera, so the boxes are vital for saving lives.

Countries that have received Aquaboxes over the years have called them life-savers and reported significant falls in disease and healthier, stronger children.

However, the recent earthquake in Indonesia has wiped out the group's existing stock of boxes, leaving just five instead of the usual 600 available to be dispatched when a disaster hits.

The charity fears it will have to make cutbacks if it cannot return to previous levels of financial support.

The cash problems also come as it was hoping to introduce more of the latest version of the Aquabox, which can help larger groups of people at any one time.

Two boxes are used at the moment. The Aquabox Standard can clean 1,100 litres of water – enough for a family of four for four months. The Aqua30 can purify 33,000 litres – enough for 150 people for 100 days.

But new boxes, which use an improved micropore filter instead of tablets and filters, can clean more water over a longer period – enough for whole communities, hospitals and schools.

The boxes are getting good reports from tests in Honduras, Gambia and Kenya and the charity is hoping to complete the testing soon and have the first boxes ready for shipment by April.

Trustee David Haspel said: "We are down to our last five boxes, which is not a great situation. If a disaster happens tomorrow, we will not be able to send anywhere near the quantity of boxes which would be required and the lack of clean water will ultimately lead to deaths.

"At times of disaster, donations do go up but we need to maintain stock throughout the year so the boxes are ready to go as soon as they are needed.

"These new Aquaboxes are much more efficient – they are revolutionary in terms of the way they purify the water.

"We would love the people of Derbyshire to get behind us and help us buy the components for these new boxes."

Aquaboxes have been sent out in their thousands over the years.

They have gone to areas affected by the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 and last year's cyclone in Burma.

They were also sent to victims of the Indonesian earthquake in Sumatra last month, which was along the same fault line as the 2004 tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people. Also in October, boxes helped victims of flooding in Hyderabad, India, and in the Philippines.

The Rotarians also regularly send boxes to poor communities and those hit by civil war, including in the Gambia, Kenya and Zimbabwe, where clean water is in short supply.

They are shipped from a depot in Wirksworth, where volunteers pack, check and organise their distribution through aid agencies operating in the affected countries.

The charity – which is managed in Derbyshire, by the Rotary Club of Wirksworth – is a project of Rotary International of Great Britain and Ireland.

Rotary clubs across the country raise money for Aquaboxes, as do individuals, schools and community groups in Derbyshire. Donors sponsor boxes and collect items to go inside them.

Mr Haspel said: "Disasters around the world come in many forms; war, drought, earthquake, flood, typhoon and hurricane.

"But they all share a common challenge – the provision of safe drinking water for survivors.

"The lack of clean water for drinking and poor sanitation creates an ideal breeding ground for water-borne diseases such as cholera, typhoid or acute diarrhoea.

"These can result in sickness and, possibly, death, especially among the very young and the elderly.

"Aquaboxes can play a vital part in minimising the after-effects of a disaster.

"We want to go on saving lives but to do this we need the help of Derby Telegraph readers.

"That is why we are asking schools, businesses, community groups and individuals to get behind us and 'Give Water, Give Life'."

Tomorrow, find out about the thousands of people across the world helped by Aquabox and the mammoth effort to aid those affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.