Today, 2.66 billion people
still lack access to sanitation. This
wipes 6% off GDP.
1:9 = the ratio of money invested in WASH
to the economic benefits from better health and
time freed up. Fifteen minutes of time saved collecting
water increases the proportion of girls
attending school by 8-12%
k
r
o
w
s
’
m
a
f
x
O
.
r
e
t
a
w
.
g
n
n
o s acting and innovati
r
a
e
50 y
Jim Howard.
(1926-2003).
Leader of the
Oxfam
Technical Unit
1960s
Oxfam’s first grants for water: wells
and irrigation for smallholders in
Jordan, and catchment dams for
cattle herders in Bechuanaland
Bihar famine: relief, rural
development and DRR through
employment on village irrigation
works for agricultural development
1967-1977
1971
Groundwater
management and
irrigation, India, and
village water for
health and to relieve
women’s drudgery,
Tanzania
Bangladesh emergency:
sanitation response
The average human
being excretes 0.5
litres, or half a kilo, of
solids per day
“Drinking is not the problem.
Eating is” (Prof. Tony Allan)
‘Tippy Tap’ for
washing hands
Oxfam water tanks,
Goma, 1994
Then and now:
Below: Derwenage
refugee camp,
emergency bladder
tank, 1991. Left:
water bladder at in
Haiti, 2010
Climate change is bringing rising temperatures,
changing rainfall patterns, more extreme storms,
droughts and floods
It takes 140 litres of water to make one cup
of espresso – and 1300 litres to grow one
kilogram of wheat
Women taking
water from the river,
Tajikistan
1979-81
Northern Somalia:
water in displaced
camps, including
42 solar pumps;
development of the
Oxfam water kit
1967
Children learn about
sanitation as part
of DRR – a race
to place a pen in a
bottle, Indonesia
1973
Oxfam Sanitation
Unit set up
1984-1985
1991
1990
1992
Ethiopia/Sudan
droughts, wars and
famines
1984
Start of the Oxfam
Technical Unit
First Gulf War,
emergency in Jordan
Technical
Unit becomes
emergencies only
Kurdish
response
1995
Oxfam develops focus on
engineering plus public
health promotion
1997
SPHERE
standards
a decade of increasing
responses to floods
and to cholera
2000
1994
World
Commission
on Dams
Great Lakes crisis: Oxfam provides clean
water and sanitation to 2.3 million people
The world’s
water supply
Oxfam well in Jordan, 1962
2000-2010
Irrigation for
agricultural
scale-up,
India, 2007
Saltwater 97.5%
Father Godest, Mysore,
India,1965
Global annual
water demand has
tripled since 1960
First “water kit” in use
1980s Burkina Faso water harvesting: the “magic stones” –
in Honduras, 1981. The
the start of a 30-year agricultural revolution in the Sahel
Oxfam Water Kit was the
first of its kind to deliver
large quantities of clean
water to big populations in
emergencies.
A young girl collects water from an Girl draws water from an Oxfam
Oxfam tapstand in Kitgum, Uganda bucket, Pakistan
Fresh water 2.5%
Available for use: 0.1%
By 2050 there will be 9 billion of us,
6 billion urban, all needing water
2004
Darfur: groundwater depletion
and “integrated water resource
management”
2010 onwards
Pakistan flood – Oxfam provides water to 1.8
million people; Haiti earthquake – major urban
WASH crisis, and ongoing
2010
Burkina Faso/Niger water and soil conservation
hailed as one of the 20th Century’s top 20 “feed
the world” case studies (IFPRI)
Cholera outbreaks: Angola 2007,
Zimbabwe 2008/9, Haiti 2010.
The current cholera pandemic is
driven by a more virulent strain
of bacteria; rising temperatures
and heavy rains; and the
collapse of water and sanitation
services. Handwashing with
soap is the best defence.