Water different world: from Kent to Cambodia

British Red Cross

"The main dangers from water here are diarrhoea and skin diseases" - Viey Savet (12) from Cambodia

The British Red Cross has been helping children in the UK understand how precious clean water is, by comparing their experiences with Cambodia where many children die from water-related disease.

Every 20 seconds worldwide, a child dies as a result of poor sanitation. That’s 1.5 million preventable deaths each year.

In Cambodia, the British Red Cross has helped more than 60,000 people to have cleaner water and sanitation over the past five years. Some 11 per cent of children in the rural province of Oddar Meanchey die before the age of five. The British Red Cross has been working in schools in the area to provide safe, clean water in the classroom.

To mark World Water Day (20 March 2008) the Red Cross asked schoolchildren from both the UK and Cambodia to write water diaries to compare their experiences of this vital resource.

In some parts of Cambodia, people live in floating villages because they have no land and so are surrounded daily by water, which is often undrinkable. Twelve-year-old Viey Savet, who goes to a floating school in Chong Khneas, kept a water diary: “All of our water comes from the lake,” he wrote. “I don’t know where other people get their water from. I think there is enough water all around the world. The main dangers with water here are getting diarrhoea and skin diseases.”

In contrast, Adam Bailey (12) from Southborough in Kent described what water means to him: “The most important use of water for me and my family is being able to drink it when we want to. We get our water from taps in the kitchen and bathroom. I think Cambodian children use water to drink, wash their clothes and themselves and water their crops.”

Gregory Rose, British Red Cross health adviser, said: “The most vulnerable in Cambodia are often children – in Oddar Meanchey, where the British Red Cross is working with schools to provide safe, clean water in classrooms, the statistics are shocking. Some 11 per cent of children in the region die before reaching the age of five, compared with 5.2 per cent in the capital, Phnom Penh. A key part of preventing child deaths is providing access to clean water and sanitation facilities.”

Since 2003 the British Red Cross in Cambodia has provided more than a thousand water filter units, 200 latrines and 50 hand-dug wells with pumps serving almost 2,000 people. More than 100 Red Cross volunteers also give hygiene promotion sessions to the most vulnerable people.

The British Red Cross also supports water and sanitation activities in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Uganda, Ethiopia and Rwanda.