Welcome to Inclusion Bites, your
sanctuary for bold conversations that spark change. I'm
Joanne Lockwood, your guide on this journey of exploration into the
heart of inclusion, belonging, and societal
transformation. Ever wondered what it truly takes to create a
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You're not alone. Join me as we uncover the
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jo.Lockwood@seechangehappen.co.uk
to share your insights or to join me on the show.
So adjust your earbuds and settle in. It's time to
ignite the spark of inclusion with Inclusion Bites.
And today is episode 111
with the title Hydrating Humanity. And I have the absolute honor
and privilege to welcome Hannah Bellamy. Hannah is the
managing director of Charity Water. When I asked Hannah to
describe her superpower, she said, getting people to
see and care about ongoing issues in the
world. Hello, Hannah. Welcome to the show. Hi, Jo.
Thanks so much for having me. Absolute pleasure. So, Hannah,
hydrating humanity, that is sounds like a fascinating thing. So tell
us more. Yeah. Of course. So hydrating
humanity, I think what lots of people don't realize
is that while we all need water, not everybody has access to
it. So there's 703,000,000 people living around the world who
don't have access to clean water, And it's not just
about being able to drink it Wellbeing able to Joanne, you know, 10
on the tap and drink that water. Not having clean water
is an issue which affects education. It affects
opportunity. It's the biggest killer of children under the age of 5. And,
really, it's a social injustice which affects women
and girls in particular. Those are some staggering numbers. Yeah. Biggest killer of
children under the age of 5. Yeah. Wow. That and
703,000,000 people Yeah. Across the globe not having
access to clean water. I suppose what's going on in my head and the Bites
and see stereotypes are probably in my head is poverty in Africa, but it
goes beyond that, doesn't it? It does go beyond that.
So it it can happen in in all sorts of places and and pop up
in different pockets. So, you know, we'll definitely find that in some
vast countries so if you think in North America, for example, there'll be areas where
people don't have piped water to their homes. But
see, as an organization, Charity Water, we do focus on countries that are
low down on the UN's human development index because those are where
people really need help. So about about 80% of our work is in Africa,
about 20% in Southeast Asia, but that's not where the problem is completely
isolated to. I mean, we hear about it now, unfortunately, in war zone
situations. That's not the type of thing we go and fix because
for us, we're working in places where we want to have long term systemic
change to help remove people from the poverty that you're
imagining. So clean water is the first step to help people remove people from
poverty. Yeah. Because it is a it's a tool in warfare, isn't it, where
you remove utilities? So you remove sanitation,
food, water supply in order to get
your opposing side to capitulate or give
in through suffering, starvation, dehydration. So, yeah,
I'd never really put it in that context before. But it's it
is it is one of those tools. And I guess if you go back I'm
just thinking we jo back into ancient medieval history. We've got
see to starve people out of their castle, didn't see? And through, like, a war.
see. Yeah. Which feels like it in some ways, there's
instances similar to that now perhaps. But
the the interesting thing there is because because when people read it in the
news and it's happening in that type of war scenario, it feels
like something new, and people are horrified by it. People are horrified by the
idea of not having access to clean water in that situation.
But what I want people to do is is to take that horror
and think, actually, there's people around the world. Like I said, that's 700 over
700,000,000 people like that on a day to day basis.
And, really, it it it's something we know how to fix. So what I really
want people to do is to hear that and think, oh my goodness. That's that's
shocking. How can we allow that to happen? And oh my goodness. It's
something we can change if we just invest in the right way. We can fix
this problem, and we can save those children under 5. We can impact those women's
lives. So it it's it's how do we take that that
horror and and refocus it into action. And is there a I mean,
you emphasize the the the word clean water.
Mhmm. Is there a a marked difference between
clean water, dirty water, and no water? So a lot of these areas
may have water Mhmm. But it's not suitable for for
drinking or or sanitary to clean and washing. Is is
that is that the challenge? Or having water at all is the challenge? In
the countries, we work in both, and it can change wildly
between seasons, rainy season, dry season, everything like that. So if
you think about somewhere like Bangladesh, there are instances where definitely
there is too much water. It's just not the right water, so it can be
extremely dirty. And, actually, what we need to do is think about clean
water Inclusion, which are adaptable in times
of flooding, but that still reach the clean water as opposed
to the dirty water, which is flooding. There's other places we work
where in the Sahel region, the desert
region in I always Happen Gennifer Eats. How did see?
In West Africa, which where it's a really harsh
condition. It's not in the dry season. It there is no water. I mean, you
can dig really, really deep down. And what we find is people
there may have really old wells, which they're
able to sometimes gather water from, but they can dry up, and the water that
does come is really dirty. And they've usually walked miles and
spent hours, which is why women see affected, to collect that water. So what we
want to do is drill deep down to a stable place in the
water table and make it simple to pump that water up to the surface and
then to have that water source close to people's homes. So women
Wellbeing usually, you know, if you think barefoot, very
hot ground, long distances, often unsafe. So
what we do hear about is is different forms of violence they they could encounter
to collect water, back breaking work to bring it back, and you think balancing
it there on your head or or or sometimes strapping it to the back, bringing
it home, having that water be dirty, having that make your children sick,
having that make you sick, and then have to do and do it again and
multiple times a day. So for us, it has to be a sustainable clean water
source within 30 minutes round round trip, whole trip. We want to take less than
30 minutes when people need to get water, and it has to be Safety, and
it has to be clean. But what what I just heard you say there is
so women are are making this journey potentially half a day
Mhmm. 20, 50 miles, I guess, is is that sort of distance.
And when they're bringing the water back, that water
itself is not necessarily clean. It it can also be dirty as well.
So they've gone to get this water, and now they're bringing in
dirty water. How do they will they boil it? Will they sanitize
it somehow? Or they just, you know, just be dirty and they they consume it
as is? Again, different communities will have different
ways of doing it. Sometimes they'll filter it through some cloth, which obviously would
remove some of the larger debris, but not
the germs. And that's the real issue because often what we'll see
so there's a woman called Malatani who lives in Malawi.
She used to walk up and down this this
quite intrepid ravine in her flip flops to go and collect
water from a stream. It was a stream that would be
really a trickle at certain points. So she's there, you have to dig
down, get in a queue, take that water from it from the source.
What around that will be goats,
cows, whatever whatever other animals want to
come. And so if a cow is weeing in
that water, pushing it through a cloth, which may not be clean
in itself, is not removing the germs. It will
remove some of the leaches, the the, you know, other nasty Bites,
see everything else, but it's not Change, safe water. But the pollution predominantly
in these sources, because their water holes is likely to be
animals' animal waste, both
yeah. And human waste, I guess, in some areas Yep.
River pollution and things. Exactly. Animal waste, human waste,
whatever pollution has been in there. I mean, it's it would be so for me,
where I live, my closest water source would be see River Thames. So it would
be like me walking down to the Thames, taking water from
that, and using that for my family. And I
wouldn't, Bites you you just think I wouldn't, but there's no choice within
this matter. Yeah. Water is so fundamental to life. Is what
Yeah. Exactly. You can go hungry, but you can't go thirsty for more than a
few days, can you? No. No. Exactly. You can't. And then you also you then
you start to realize it's not only that. It's it's keeping clean,
keeping everything else around you clean and and the the the
additional health benefits that provides and the dignity as well.
Just feeling clean with yourself that your clothes aren't dirty, that you're
not that you're not not dusty. And we we find that
often in in the communities where we work, there's real
pride after receiving King Water because people are able to find that dignity.
I, I visited see fairly early on within my 1st
year working at Charity Water. I went to Ethiopia to the northern
region called Tigray. I went to a couple of different communities within a day, and
I found it was the first time I saw it so starkly. The first community
that we visited, the children had clean water. It was somewhere we'd
we'd worked. We'd we'd delivered a clean water source. Our local partner was working
there. And everybody in in both communities,
hugely welcoming, people dancing. It's, you know, it's a
joyous moment when see go into these communities and and and meet with people and
talk and hear their stories. In that first community,
everybody's dressed in these beautiful vibrant fabrics. They're dancing
around there, and you can see the the shine in the children's eyes. We had
a football match. You're you're doing all these things. The next community,
we we we drove along see very dirt roads, couldn't get up there. And we
had to sort of hike up some some mountainsides and and go meet the children
there, and they didn't have clean water. We walked down to a sort
of stream where they were able to collect water if it was Diversity. We saw
that and what it looked like and how they collected it, you know, scoops they
were using and everything else. But the biggest contrast was
just Safety vibrant cloth
underneath, but very dusty and dirty. The children's faces,
you know, they weren't able to keep themselves clean in the same way, the hair,
everything else. see you soon realize it's Bites yes. It's about health and in and
drinking and the hydration side of it. It's also just about how you want to
live in the comfort level and the dignity it brings. What what are
the what are the symptoms? Or so you you've had drinking
and consuming or washing and bathing in in unclean water.
What what does that do to the human body in these cases? Is it is
it dysentery, cholera, all these kind of diseases and
things? All sort I mean, all sorts of diseases in it. It's an endless
list. What we see very often and what affects these the young children in
particular, it it's diarrhea. So they
have extremely runny stomachs. And,
unfortunately, in a situation where you're not able to then have enough water and keep
consuming enough water or if the water you're then consuming is also making you
sick, diarrhea can be fatal. And that's the really,
really sad thing. You know, to generally hear if my
kids get diarrhea, it's a very unpleasant experience, but that's the end of
it. Bites it's maybe 24 hours, 48 hours of discomfort,
not very pleasant, but we're able to and and then the idea that actually
in some in another country, the only water
that that that if I was the mother would be able to give to my
child could continue exacerbating that, and their child can die, which does
Happen. It's it's heartbreaking. Bites I've been lost at see, and you've got all that
salt water around you and they'll Yes. Drink something. Yeah.
Yeah. Heartbreak. When you're when
someone's got water that is in various I
mean, not all dirty water is is equal, I guess. There must be hierarchies
of really, really dirty to Mhmm. Okay.
So there must be different treatments and different ways of of tackling different
pollutants, I guess. So what what does it cost? I mean, I'm
I'm in my head, I'm thinking that that little tablets or
something you put in the water to disinfect or to clean. Is that
is that the sort of solutions you're you're looking at to clean water, if you
like? It's not. So because what we're trying to do is
search Charity Water every single time we work in a community, and
we work with a local partner. So we don't do the work ourselves. We fund
local organizations to do Happen. And we want to and we do put
a pin on a map on our website with GPS coordinates, and we say this
community now has clean water. So it can't be
something which could run out in that way. So it looks different in every
community because it has to be appropriate both to the water source, but also
to what's appropriate for that community in terms of can they get the right
nuts and bolts to fix it and maintain things. So in some places,
it's digging down to like I said, we're so we get we need to be
able to get a truck in there, have it really drilled deep down,
find the water, and that water then will be clean usually. So once you get
down to the in the groundwater, it's going to be clean. Pump it up.
We will make sure and test it and make sure there's not nothing come no
traces of of unwanted things coming through from that
water. And and then that that's drinkable water. That's potable water. In
other places, it is a a case of having a a filter. And,
actually, you ask what it costs. So, again, it varies
per thing. But a typical, you know, drilling a well with a hand pump,
that's gonna be about £8,000, £10,000. In other places, so
Cambodia, for example, we use a biosand filter program
in lots of places we're working. And in that, it we're helping
community members to build their own
filters, which will work within their homes. And, again, how to maintain that, how does
that and we know they're working for 10 10 plus years,
if this structure that has then been built within their homes, and they can collect
water, pour it in there, and it will come out completely clean.
But the dirty water itself looks different in different contexts. We actually got our
our creative team. So we are in Bangladesh at the moment, and they did something
we haven't done for quite a while, which was take microscope with them. And they
took a microscope, and they've taken it into one of the schools, and they've got
some of the water that the kids were drinking, and they put it
under the microscope and there are things moving. You know, it's it's
alive, that water that they're drinking, all different shapes and sizes and, you
know, that that's reactive. And you look at that and you think, I don't wanna
drink that and put that in my body. And then they look at what they've
used there, and that's another fill a different type, but another filtration system, and they're
able to see that there's nothing there. It's just it it's dead,
which doesn't sound good, but that's what you want with your water. You do not
want living things in your water. Jo so dead things are good? In
that way, yeah. So, yeah, in that way. So it's about
killing off the bacteria or the the micros,
because when they're alive, they react with the gut, and that's what the
cause of diarrhea, etcetera. But Yeah. Yeah. Dead things are inert then, and they go
straight through. And then Yeah. And when I say dead, I just mean there's nothing
there. see they've actually been filtered out. So knowing that you've killed them, they've literally
just they've got caught. They're no longer within that. They said that it it just
doesn't look alive. The water doesn't look alive like it does when you Oh, okay.
When you get yeah. It's not it's not the swimmy things that are now in
a No. They don't no. No. No. There are no swimmy things anymore.
Right. So don't want swimmy things. I'm I'm fascinated
by how the water that you're drilling down
is clean because, you know, it's obviously in the earth in the in the
Mhmm. There's gonna be dust and bits and pieces in it, And presumably,
water must filter through the earth
Mhmm. Permeate down, and those and that would bring down
pollutants with it. Or or is this coming or these water tables coming from
from rainfall through clean Diversity, from the top of mountains all the way under
in underground? Is that is that is that how they get cleaned through through evaporation
and then perspiration down? Right. This is slightly beyond my this is
probably why we're at local partners. So my hydrogeology is
minimal, but I know it is keen. And often I it what it is, I
think, is it's gone through so many layers of rock. So a bit like when
we put the biosand filters in in in Cambodia, it's a similar thing
where it's gone through so many layers of rock to get there that it's become
clean. And, also, it's dark down there, everything. There's no light to
encourage any life in that sense. So it's also had had
that experience, but I am that that's a piece I'm not I'm not very
well involved on. I'm just curious. No. I I I get
that. Yeah. I suppose you got all that pressure. You got the the the
filtration, as you say. There's there's no light. It's probably a bit cold as
well. Yeah. Yeah. So what are the what
what are the challenges? I mean, obviously, I guess, money is a challenge.
Mhmm. But there must be logistical challenges because you're
often working in very rural or out the way
areas. These these communities are are not on the main road. So you you
probably have to find them and and and put
infrastructure in there and electricity maybe, they may not have
that either. Yes. Jo most communities won't have electricity, and that would
often come after water. So often what we find is that after clean
water comes, the next step within a community may be to replace
their roofing. If they've had straw roofs and things like that, There's enough money. They
will replace it with tin roofs. So it's, it's better
in terms of keeping the rain out and things like that. Then the next
step often may be something like electricity, but that that usually comes a
little bit later. In terms of logistical challenges,
I think we're we're so lucky in our model and that we work with local
experts and local partners because they're able to that they know the best
solution, and they they know how to adapt their
work for for for the environment. So
they they overcome those. Also, so many
we come across. So, the woman I mentioned earlier, when our
team first went to her community, they were really
keen to have clean water because they'd seen it in a neighbouring village, and they
really wanted clean water within their own village. But
while you don't need the electricity to drill down, you do need a considerable sized
rig. You know, the type of rigs you'd normally see on a building site or
something else, they need to be able to get 100 of meters down in down
to the ground. So it's a huge training piece on it. It needs to
come through. It's run on diesel or whatever else it is, and it needs to
be able to get right down in there. And so what they didn't have
was a road for for the for this drilling rig to be able to get
there. And, actually, the ravine, which they'd been walking
over militalia and her friends have been walking over and and and navigating to be
able to get their stream water from is what is what the issue
was because you can't you couldn't build a road over that very easily.
So to overcome that, it's not us overcoming that. Actually, people
really want water. So when they realised that was an issue and a a
villainy and a necrosis, what they decided to do
was every family within that community nominated one
family member to work together and build a road, and they did.
And they they gathered all the materials. They they they did it. And so our
local partner will go in and support them and make sure they're planning it right.
Is it going to work, the drilling rig? How does this you know, they know
because they've done it in other communities, the different, you know, layers of dirt
and rocks and everything else you need. So they'll work with them to do that,
but but it's it's off it's often this partnership. So it's us, it's our local
partners and experts, and then it's the community themselves that are all working together to
bring clean water and overcome any of the difficult challenges. And then the
challenges we face the bigger challenge for me, the fan
challenges we face is a bit like I mentioned earlier about when we we think
about wartime and people not having clean water, that's a
shock, and so the world pays attention. I was
reading just yesterday about habituation
and that there's as humans, we are
it's a bit like boiling a frog in the sense that we we become used
to something. We stop seeing it, and that's what's happened with these
type of issues. And, unfortunately, when I often use
the statistic that it's it's the leading killer of children under the age of 5
because if you said someone to someone,
do you want to fix the the biggest killer of children under the age of
5? Do you want to neutralize that, save those children's lives? Nursery school aged kids.
Everyone will say, yeah. Everyone wants to do Happen, and we can do
that. But they don't see it and hear it anymore because this is an
ongoing you know, throughout our lifetime, there
has there's been this issue. I suppose I grew up well, I'm a bit maybe
didn't grow up, but I was around with Live Aid and Bob Geldof
and Feed the World and images of
African young African children with pot bellies, malnutrition
Yeah. And the drought related because, obviously, the
drought causes lack of crops and lack of food. So it's kind of it's a
bit of everything, really. So you not only are you trying to give
people water to drink, you've also gotta find water to grow
crops and other things, which is again Yep. A massive challenge in its own right.
And you can't be putting sewage contaminated
water on crops because of that, again, just creates the problem in there as
well. So it it's it's the whole I I get it. It's it's the whole
cycle Yeah. Of humanity that living in those communities,
giving them life. Yeah. And it's almost, you know, using
Maslow as an example is the the hierarchy of needs. It's that really basic.
You can't, as you said, you can't wash your face or clean your clothes
Yeah. If you haven't got enough water to drink, and it it reflects in their
personas how you perceive them. So Yeah. Yeah. And you can't wash your hands,
which I think, you know, during COVID, that's something we all became very
aware of was and we've always known it, but the importance of washing your
hands throughout the day at a particular moment. So if you can't wash your
hands, the spread of diseases, you know, it increases. You kinda take
it for granted, don't you? That, you don't even think about washing your
hands. You you just it becomes there's the tap. I mean, we get
frustrated if we go into the toilet, and there's the soap dispenser doesn't work with
you. Yeah. And and try it off. Yeah. I'm I'm not gonna walk
out with shaking my hands and get the drips off. Waving our hands jo the
sensors to try and get the water to you know, all those things these days.
see. Those first world problems that we get kind of Mhmm. Excited
about really doesn't work. And, these people were they don't have
the luxury of having water to drink, let alone to wash their hands in the
Yeah. Exactly. So where where do you get most of your
funding from? Because it it's this is not this is not a cheap thing, is
it? This is this is big big infrastructure investment. How do you how do
you raise the funds for this? see as a as a normalization as a charity,
we have a unique model. So we have 2 separate bank accounts. We
have the water bank account, and then we have the overheads bank account. And the
reason we do this is is we our founder, Scott Harrison, when he first set
up the charity, he he realized that people don't
trust charities. It's a real problem that people think I don't know where my
money is going. I you know, especially when it's going overseas,
what's happening with it? How do I know it's gone to the right place? How
what who's saying for your laptop? I've you needed to fly here. You know, our
team have fly places. What does how much is that costing? So to
overcome all of that, we have these 2 separate bank accounts, water and
overheads. And if you went on our to our website today, if anyone decided to
go onto the website and give to Charity Water, a 100% of
that money will go into our water bank account. We take that and we
grant every single penny. We even refund any credit card fees or anything
else. We'll go to our local partners and be invested in Clean Water Solutions.
So that money comes from a a couple of different places.
So a lot of it comes from everyday
people. So we have people who learn about this and they really want to
make a difference, so they'll sign up to what we call the spring, which is
to give every single month. Jo I always think of it as, like, a
subscription for good. You give you've got your Netflix. You've got whatever else it is
you're giving to every month. You sign up there and actually give every single month
and know that you're doing good in the world. A 100% of it has gone
up over there. So we have that. We do have people who fundraise,
who do races, who do any you know, whatever it is
that's fun for them. So so they go and fundraise again, 100%.
And then we have businesses we work with, so people like
Uniqlo, Stanley, the the drink vessels, a
number of other different businesses, Aveda, the hair salons. They
will give to us either they're fundraised with their employees or their or their
customers, or they will from their corporate donations.
And then the final piece would be welfare individuals who are able to
say, I want to sponsor clean water for 1 community or clean water
for 1 school or clean water for 1 health Inclusion. And then we'll work with
them on that and provide them with that reporting process to say, great. Okay.
You want to give £10,000. I have projects that need funding
in Malawi, Rwanda, etcetera etcetera, and I
work with them on the list and and watch that. You know? And so we'll
work together to to make sure that matches. So that's the the
water, and that's the bulk of what we do and the bulk of what we
see. But we always have to balance it, obviously, with our overhead.
And so the majority of our overhead is funded by the, again,
those wealthy donors. So philanthropists, they've often been founders of
businesses, been very successful. They understand investing
in the business processes and systems and structures and stuff
to generate and be the engine of doing the rest of it. So they sign
up to what we call the well. They give to us usually once a year
for 3 years plus or commit 3 years, and they're very much part of our
community. We report to them a bit like investors, so there is no return for
them beyond the amazing feel good. And this is how many people we've impacted this
year thanks to investing, but that money comes from there. And then we do
actually also add in Gift Aid now to that as well because it's much more
sustainable way of us of us growing. Because otherwise, you can you can
be in you you don't always balance out. Otherwise, the water can do really well.
You need to make have the overhead doing just as well to be able to
use that money effect. I like that. That's quite a really enlightening
governance model to do that and fundraising model. Because too often
charities get, criticized for Mhmm.
Salaries and, Safety, flights and and, you know,
I know running a business, and you have to pay people. You have to pay
people correctly. Yep. It's it's a charity that does that does good,
but the people themselves aren't charities. You're not a charity. You have
to live your life. And if you're gonna attract great people who could
make a fantastic difference Yeah. Those great people have a worth.
And, no, we can't all we can't be all altruistic and and,
and and do do it for nothing, can we? No. Exactly. And people sometimes
ask that and say and they see people are surprised sometimes when you you have
a salary working for a see, but I'd have to work somewhere else
otherwise. You know, then I have to work to buy
food and pay my own water bills and, you know, have a home and my
kids and and everything else. And my husband's a doctor in the NHS. So, you
know, between us, we're we're both doing what we can. Bites some of these countries
you're you're working in, they're they don't have stable
governments. There there is kind of corruption
and issues, if you like, politically within that within that their territory.
Do you have do you have troubles working within some of those
jurisdictions or pretty much you you're left alone?
Because I I just imagine that there's bribes and corruption
that have to or or people using your facilities or
services to for for for the wrong purpose, if you like. Is that something
you have to be really care careful of? So it's so it's something you need
to always be aware of. Jo, again again, because it's often not us. It's a
local organization. It's a bit different where where we're working with those people because
they they they are known within that system, and they are
wanted in the work they're doing. It's very valued. But, of course, you always have
to be aware of of that. So we have a separate. They're almost
an isolated team, who we call Programme Finance. So our programmes team are the ones
who work with the local partners on making sure the work is long term
robust, that we're we're scaling it, everything else. The programmes
finance, they sit they sit slightly separately, and they're
auditing everything. So they're going in and checking how the funds have been
used, have been they removed responsibly, can we see x, y, and zed to prove
this. So a bit like any nonprofit or charity does generally in terms of
reporting, we are really drilling down, and we have long term partners jo
we can get because you you know, you then you build up that trust as
well and you know what what works for each side. But, you know, we do
we pay a great deal of attention to that stuff because we we
we believe very strongly that the donors
should feel absolute joy to know that that you know, if you
get if I want you to know absolutely that you've given Team Wars to somebody
on the other side of the world, and you should feel amazing about that. And
that's what's happened with your money, so you feel very strongly about that and then
feel really strongly that the person who, you know like we've talked
about, Munatani's community, they've built a road. You know, they they deserve
whatever money is is Wellbeing sent to help them, that for that to reach them
because they're also working extremely hard and and will and will be dedicated to
this water point. So on both sides, for us, it's really important it runs as
smoothly as possible. Yeah. Okay. So, yeah, I I get that. So you you
are you're not out there trying to break Lockwood yourselves, if you
like. You're you're working with local people who understand. So you
not only are you providing clean water, you're
also, I'm guessing through this, providing jobs
and injection of money into their economies as Wellbeing.
Yes. That's a you know, we want it all to see. And and some local
partners we work with, not only do they we'll work with
them, and there'll be a local organization employing local people.
Then we'll also arrange for Diversity local partners, have
different expertise see get to know each other, to learn from each other, to also
help on that side of things. And we also have I think it's
in I'm trying to think which country it's in now. I think it's Rwanda, but
I may be wrong. One of our local partners is that they
they even invest in things like local masons who will be able
to create the stone base that they need. So they
helped train local masons to do that and to be able to supply it.
So it it it has complete knock on effects in
terms of working through local people. And the other thing I would say is
we know that when you invest in clean water infrastructure, like
I said, it brings opportunities to places and you see the electricity, the different
roofs, everything else. But, actually, you know, it's proven that that
for every 1 pound invested, there's 4 there's 4 pound return in the local
economy. So it it and that's just the start of it
from a week. Presumably, so you've been operating and and helping
communities for several years now. How how long has your your project's been
going? Is it? So Charity Water globally has been going for 17
years, and then we've been in the UK since 2018. Presumably, obviously,
you've made a lot of difference to a lot of communities over that time. Is
there is there an end to I mean, it's almost like an infinite bridge,
path. You have to you keep keep painting it, you keep painting it, keep painting
it, and there's always another community to to to handle it.
Is is it is it sustainable to keep doing this
forever if you like? Because I I can't predict an end.
No. So I think that there's there's 2 things there. First of all, we have
a saying within the organization, which is don't be
afraid of work that has no end. So you we are
impacting each time you impact a community, you've done something. You've
achieved something. And, actually, when we began, 1,000,000,000 people didn't have
access to clean water. It's not all thanks to us. It's thanks to a whole
a whole load of organizations, but now 703,000,000.
So progress has been made, and we our belief
is that we can end the water crisis in our lifetime if everybody
really pulls together. This isn't it it it's not jo it's not
there there's so many other causes out there, so to do with climate change and
how do we what do we do about climate change? What Diversity cancers, how do
we tackle that? There's all these different things that people that see huge
amounts of research and to development and
iterative processes and learning to get to a point where we'd even would know
how to solve some of it. Whereas that's not this. That's
not the waterfront. We know how to fix it. It's there. It's it's a it
it's about investing community by community, school by school, health clinic by
health clinic until we we meet that. It will get more expensive
as we go because the communities that left are likely to be the most
rural, the most hard to reach, the most in need, but we don't
stop until it's done. You mentioned climate change there,
and most people associate the that with rising sea
levels. But that brings its own challenge, doesn't it? Because it's the wrong type of
water, and you could be polluting water tables
and sources of water that you're currently relying on. It's yes. So
that's one of the things we we really look at, and it it it was
interesting. I was speaking with Brian who's who leads all our programmatic
work, and he was saying that many of us feel like the world is
unstable and and flapping around a little bit and and things are surprising
us. Often, these communities, because they're more impoverished and
they're struggling in different ways, they're at the end of the tail end of that
flapping around. So if you think about something moving
they're experiencing real extremes. And so
what we find is somewhere like Malawi, we've talked about, will
will they'll have extreme droughts, a lack of water.
And so in those cases, we need to make sure we're drilling deep enough for
that to be long term sustainable clean water for them and that we've
thought about how this shifts over time as well. And then they're
also experiencing, you know, huge storms where they're bringing
unheard of amounts of rain, strong winds, and destroying
infrastructure. So we also have to make things sure things are built
really robustly. And if there is things like flooding,
that that the systems remain safe and that the dirty water isn't
flooding and infiltrating the the clean water, everything else. And all of this has to
be taken into account. And, actually,
if we overlay a map of where we currently work and so we're in
22 countries. Where we currently work And the
countries which are most impacted right now by climate change already
feeling the effects of it, they pretty much sit on top of each other. So
it's often in these countries that they're ex they're experiencing
the they're experiencing it right now, climate change. And what we can do
is if you give them an adequate, safe, long term access to clean
water, you're removing one of the real
difficulties for them because at least they have that And then everything you know, you
can rebuild things you can motor, but you need to have the access to a
clean water. I'm I'm I'm I'm fascinated. I'm just thinking
as you were describing, drilling down to these water types and making sure there's
enough volume of water down there to be a sustaining community.
Presumably, the the communities themselves are not consuming
water on a vast scale. This is, what, 20, 30 households
Mhmm. Few liters per person per day type of thing. Yeah.
So how much water do you need to locate for it
to be considered a worthwhile sustainable water source? Priscilla
Bites quite technical. You may not know the answer to that, but it's what's going
on in my head, I suppose. Yeah. No. And people often ask us because they'll
read about water tables drying up. And I think, you know, it's something that definitely
the US is experiencing right now, and they're starting to be concerned about
the consumption of water and and what does that mean when they're they're drawing water
from the water table. But you're right. In the communities we work in, you know,
there might be a couple of 100 people. They're often they they they
don't have the power showers and flushing toilets
and dishwashers and washing machines and everything else. So
so they're not using huge amounts of water. And,
actually, generally, what causes water tables to
fluctuate is industry. So, actually, where there's an
issue with overuse of water, it tends to be because it's within a manufacturing or
They will not deplete the water table just by having access to it. Do you
I presume not only are you bringing supply in, you must be putting
sanitary and sanitation in to remove
to remove the sources of the, contamination as well, aren't you? So we do
so so, generally, because of where we're coming, you don't need to where you're where
you're if you're drilling down, or we're putting in a filtration and and then
yes. We are. We do there there's certain places we work
where, for example, we're planting trees
around because that helps to slow down so that
water doesn't suddenly flood and also, again, helps filter it and do different things. So
there's different different adaptations that can work like that,
but but we don't normally have to unless, as I said, it is somewhere like
Cambodia or Bangladesh where where we're taking that water and putting it through a filtration
system. I appreciate this this next thing I wanna ask you is is not necessarily
your your core specialty, but I'm sure you have an opinion being in
the sector. Is just talk about a lot of stuff going on in the news
around the UK at the moment, around pollution of rivers through
untreated sewage and the water companies not fix
it. I I I I like to be charitable. I think, well,
they're not out to do bad. They may not be that efficient at doing what
they do, but they're not they're not set out to be bad. It it must
be a massive problem to cope with the volumes and demands
of of of consumers and water users
and just how how do you think that, you know, we we as a
community and society in the UK could could, I
don't know, get get around that and think about our
own water supplies? So it I'm not on the water supply side so
much, but my background is so I I came into the charitable sector through
the corporate sector. So I worked in corporate responsibility and actually worked for
Centrica and British Gas on their corporate responsibility side of things.
So I do have a view in the sense of
businesses having a duty to do the right thing. And
so when you say they don't want to do the wrong thing, I I believe
that as individual people, the majority of individual people who are
in businesses, of course, they don't want to to do the wrong
thing. They want to do right by people and and, hopefully, by the environment.
But if there if the culture and I don't know this
with the different oil culture companies. But if the culture isn't right, if the goals
aren't right, if the measurements aren't right, if perhaps legislation around it isn't right, then
the decisions being made can lead to harm. And it's really
important that the the
the social impact and the environmental impact in this is being measured very
clearly and benchmarked and that you have goals to improve that and to do it.
And so I don't know enough about the issue here, but it it
has to be done in that you know, and and perhaps legislation would be the
only answer. Yeah. I mean, you you mentioned the people you're helping
in these countries consume very little water
per capita per head. Whereas in this country, and other
developed countries, we consume vast amounts of water per head.
Even if it's not directly going through our household, but just
cleaning our food, watering our garden. All these all these ways
we we can see water. And we take it for granted. We have no
concept that water isn't free. You know, water, to us, is free. It's just turn
the tap on, and it's there. And we get really shocked when we go to
Spain on a holiday, have to buy bottled water because you can't drink out the
tap in the bath. Mhmm. So we get quite spoiled as a as
consumers in the UK. Yeah. Lockwood do. And I but I think it comes
down to so much of it's overconsumption generally, isn't it? I mean,
it's not it water's used huge amounts of water's
in jeans. You know, to manufacture jeans, you need
vast amounts, especially to get the stonewash effect, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
So it often isn't about what we're doing at home, although we can all reduce
it. And, actually, I find my interesting my daughter has a shower, and
she automatically turns off the water every time she's taking shampoo in or
washing up. You know? She just does. And she just always has because
she's like, well, that I wouldn't I wouldn't waste that. So I I'm hopeful, and
I do think that the kids are learning differently and starting to think about things
differently. So I hope that continues. I I never even thought of
turning the shower off between washing my hair, and I I kind of
just let it flow. I mean, it's not a power shower. It's a gravity shower,
but, you know, I just kinda let it flow. But yeah. And nothing nothing better
than when you're in a nice hotel and the the shower, one of those rain
showers, it just feels really invigorating. So yeah. Yeah.
But I do it without any thought. You know? I'm I'm starting to become very
conscious around recycling plastics and avoiding plastics
when I can, but I don't have a a water converse
conservation or water care thing
in my head at the moment. I I heard there's a world water day
coming up. Is that is that trying to bring that in, is it? So it
that's about access to water for everybody. So world water day, yes, that's something to
consider. But, actually, you consuming less is
not going to provide clean water to someone else on the other side of the
world. It's not you know, it's a bit like, you know, news to I don't
think parents do it as much anymore, but, you know, when kids didn't eat their
food and they'd say, there's some starving children who could, you know it doesn't
one thing does not offset the other. So World Water Day,
really, it has a different theme each year. It's a UN day, so to you
know, it's partly because it's UN development sustainable development goal number
6 is access to clean water and sanitation for all. So it's about raising awareness
for that. This year, I think it's having a theme of peace and
how peace and and water really really play into one another and and the
importance of one to the other. But we'll be doing so Charity Water,
we always do a lot of fun fun things for for, Water Day. So this
year, if anyone's in London, we'll be just off Brick Lane unveiling
a newly painted mural to try and raise awareness and keep keep
people thinking about it beyond what I've ordered today. Jo, yeah, just picking up what
you said there. So me being frugal and turn the shower off
doesn't solve the problem in Malawi or at one place you mentioned.
So I've gotta realize that the way I
can help Mhmm. Is not through personal action
as such. Mhmm. It's around supporting causes,
Mhmm. Lobbying governments, being more aware of
the needs of those people, and where
possible supporting, sponsoring, contributing, donating into the into the
causes. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. And I think and
what what's important to me, what I feel like
is at the moment, for some reason, I feel like people are very
focused on and I think this often happens in times of difficulty. They're very
focused on local causes and charities and food banks
and everything else, and we should be. We should all care about our local communities
and not take away from that at all. But we should think about humanity as
a whole and every single person and their value around the world
and think about them all people is our neighbors, all
humanity. So so that for me is if people
are thinking about if people are thinking about giving, and and I hope most people
do think about giving, to have that wider piece. So I know one family
who always want to give to a cause which is hyperlocal
to them, so they so they they they focus on a hyperlocal cause, they focus
on a national cause, and then they focus on an international cause. And for them,
they they to make sure they're they're covering everything. So not everybody can give to
3 different organisations, but to have that awareness that where's it
really needed? Where's the support really needed? Yeah. And I I would say
because I I I do work with charities. I've been trusted
a number of charities. And whilst I don't actively give
my pennies away to charity, I give my time, which I often think
is more valuable than than than a penny. Yeah. I I I give
you 10 hours of my time. I I I raise money or I I give
to that. I it's it's sometimes more valuable. But, yeah,
you can be giving without actually spending, if you
like. Yeah. Advocating, awareness raising, even
if it's just social media sharing and and and commenting
and and becoming part of a movement to ray raise the awareness.
I appreciate you want cash as well, but creating the awareness is
is also part of it, isn't it? Yeah. So what we found, we had some
Boston Consulting Group did some pro bono research for us.
What they they've said to us is that if people don't
know who Charity Water is, they're not going to give.
So right now, I want anyone and everyone to know Charity Water. I want them
to hear that name, to recognize the logo jo that we become become part of
the culture here in the UK and people will then give because they'll trust us
and hopefully start, especially because of our 100% way of working where, you know, they
give you know, where their money's going, they know we're gonna prove where their money's
gone, then they then they do start to give. Because ultimately, it's
it's the giving which is going to you know, that's the direct investment in
the change. You're not you're not looking for hours
of of people's time to come and, you know, fly out to one of
these countries and start digging holes and stuff like that. So it's very much Mhmm.
The local people do that. You're looking for raising funds in this country or
fund wherever through gift dates or whatever it may be, creating
awareness, creating a movement, creating a a a momentum,
if you like, of of of awareness of the
Change people are facing. And I I guess in the in
the forms of time, global warming, our climate
could change, other closer to home, people we would see
see as our close neighbors could also be going through areas where
their water tables become sort of, you know, what we
consider developed countries now are only, I suppose,
only 1 degree centigrade rise in temperature from becoming
more barren, more desert like. And yeah. So it's an interesting
topic. I I until we started this conversation, I I hadn't really explored in my
mind around I just saw it as people in these countries, they
have famine, they have drought. I don't really consider the, the
sort of the whole aspect in their
community around this, you know, what you said, walking hours and hours and
hours to collect water. The water you collect is then being polluted.
It's then they're then consuming dirty water because that's already choice. And
it's not about cleaning the water. It's finding access to the water
that is clean already Decaf. Or cleaner. So you're not you're not trying
to disinfect or or or clean water. You're trying to find the
better water. And that's really fascinating. It's it's something, as I see, something I hadn't
really explored before. No. Not you said it is. It's one of the basic
needs that the Masai Triangle piece of it. Right? That you have to meet this,
and then everything else there's so many things can follow. So but it it
does and it it impacts us as people,
both from thinking about, yes, those communities and how we have access. But we're always
using different water in different ways. Water comes into our lives all over the place.
So it's just I think being grateful for what we have is really
important. And you said also about what people can do. The other piece, if they
don't have the the the funding or anything themselves to
give, is talk to their employees, talk to their businesses.
We often find that, actually, it's those corporate organizations who who do have the
funding and are able to help significantly as well. So there's also that side of
it, of just thinking beyond individually and
ourselves to what can we collectively do. Yeah. And you
say you don't have to support this cause every year or every time
you Mhmm. You put on your running shoes or whatever
else you choose to do. This could just be one of a
portfolio of of charity causes that you want to support over you over
the course of of your life. Jo, yeah, I I and I really like what
you said about having that 3 tier, sort of like the the the the very
specifically my village, my locale Mhmm. Sort of the the more
nationalistic and then work for other fields, some of the bigger courses. And
it's, yeah. It's it's it's opened up another way of thinking that, you know,
like, or as I say, I donate to this. Mhmm. I've still got
scope to think about something bigger than me as well and fit a a part
of something. Because I I had a a friend who was
doing some work with a an organization called see a Cow. I don't know if
you've quite lost them. Bites it was a concept. It wasn't sending it
the cow necessarily as meat. They were sending it as the lifeblood of
a village to provide milk and to the nurture and care for it. And
eventually, yes, when it got to a point where the milk stopped flowing, it may
well become food. But the primary thing was it was transforming
villages. Yeah. Having this this livestock that
and they they said they went out to see a village Joanne they saw the
when the cows arriving. And some of the children had never seen
livestock in that way. It it brings that whole,
as you say, the smile and the the eyes of the
village, not not just around that one accent. Yeah. You're you're
you're you're changing lives and changing
their quality of life as well, aren't you? Yeah. You are. And I think that's
it. It's about finding that one thing that you can feel really passionate excited about
and the one thing that can absolutely transform lives that
we may take completely for Joanne, but we can go
and and I I sometimes think about bringing clean water to your community. What we
know is that that increases the number of children going to
school. And so this clean water can come, and I
I like to think about a young girl who, perhaps, before was having
to collect water, was too unwell to go to school, doing it. She's now going
to school, so we know that. Then she she's she's
going to school. She's learning. What we found is when we bring keen water to
a school, for example, that increases attendance by 30%. So so so
you impact there. And then you we know education is so important. So if you
think about this as one child, so that child's no longer sick at home, no
longer affecting dirty water, now going to school, getting an education, what's she gonna
do next? Because now she's really educated and she's doing really well, and she can
go off and do the next piece that the education provides. Maybe maybe
and when we hear that we speak to some kids and they say, I want
to become a doctor. So imagine that girl does become a doctor, and then she
starts to save lives. And then, you know, the ripple effects are massive. And so
I just it's how do we find that that
catalyst for change and for impacting lockwood for a long
time. I I remember I I just did a lot of work
with the community fundraising and back 20, 30 years ago. And
I remember working with agencies in in India.
Mhmm. They had a program at the time called freedom through education.
Mhmm. So it's about freeing people through
the educational process, and their their freedom at the time was their
freedom was from legacy colonialism. So they wanted to
educate themselves out of that that that that legacy of colonialism.
And then we started getting involved with building schools. And then we
realized that the the priority wasn't just building the school, it's actually
building toilets. Because without toilets Yeah. It had a disproportionate
impact on young girls. Yeah. And then we talk about period products, and we talk
about other things. So you start by thinking about this, and
then suddenly quickly realize there are enablers that
help more women and more more young girls get involved because they are the ones
that are more disproportionately disaffected by the lack
of sanitation, as you said. They're collecting the water, periods,
not not you know, as they grow up and this and this. see they they've
got challenges to go into education. And also the
the the the the the societal expectations of young women as well. We
gotta try to become that as well. But, yeah, it's it's all kind of
little little piece of the jigsaw. Often, it's the the the small
pieces you don't realize until you realize the big pieces don't work on their
own. Yeah. And I and I think we you know, when when girls
get their periods here, there's you know, when they were at school and all those
things, they they're terrified of being embarrassed. I, you know, I I remember
you Change jo school and you but you've still got you've got your
individual bathrooms, toilets you can access. You know you've got access to taps. You
know you can you know that from home, you'll have everything you see,
or perhaps at school, the school nurse can help. You know, you have all these
different things you need. But is there still a terror and, for
some reason, worry about humiliation? And so you take that
and you put it into a context where women are already perhaps more oppressed in
some ways and and where people could be maybe thought of very differently when they
get periods and and all this this societal pressure. And then you send
them to school without a space to go by
themselves, you know, so without any way of cleaning
themselves up. And it it really see it
it's unfair on those girls because you're really taking away the opportunities, and they're staying
home because they just don't want to be. It's because of that shame. And so
when we work in a school, it's not only about providing clean water. We are
working with the school to make sure there's gender specific latrines,
enough latrines to to cover the whole population, and, also,
usually, a a separate space for girls to go out sort of a a
a room they can change in and that they can wash in and they can
do other things they need to do if they have their periods. That they
have that again again, it comes back to dignity, to be honest, and
removing any stigma from it. We also, like, just see, you know,
it's a broader conversation about how how we're not in that. We shouldn't be embarrassed
about it, and everybody gets it, and this is what it looks like. But but
also allowing people you don't want to have to to raise
awareness of it by by young girls walking around with with
mess on themselves. It's just not right. Oh, and it's it's trying
to change centuries and centuries, probably
millennia, of of stigma and shame Yeah.
And oppression of women. We can't solve that. What we can do is
solve toilets. We can create clean water. We can provide
spaces for them products Yeah. Whilst we're trying
to change the world. And Yeah. I remember that statement in the first place.
Yeah. I I I see that. Hannah, it's been fascinating. And and I knew so
little about this when we started the conversation, and I I I feel
quite passionate and evangelistical now. I think that Oh, good. I Joanne
talk about this. So it's been absolutely fascinating. So tell us more about,
the website, the programs. How can people get in contact with you? How
can people support you? So I you know, we we need all the
support we can get, and so we'd love I'd love anyone to go to charitywater.org.
You can sign up to our monthly newsletter. You can set up
a fundraising campaign. You can decide to join our spring and get every single month,
whatever works for people because and as I said, every single penny will go on
clean water. And then see, personally, I'm on LinkedIn, Hannah Bellamy.
I love connecting with people, especially if they they have a way of helping in
terms of through their businesses or or anything else that works for them. So,
yep, I hope this I hope more people feel evangelical after
hearing our conversation. That's nice. I'll put all the details on the show
notes. And, Hannah, thank you so much.
Thank you. Thanks so much for having me. As we bring
this conversation to a close, I want to express my
deepest gratitude to you, our listener, for lending
your ear and heart to the cause of inclusion.
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