“Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink…”

This is a quotation comes from “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In this verse the ancient mariner found himself stranded in the middle of the ocean, surrounded by water but he could not drink any of it because it was unfit to drink and so he cried out his lament.

In the UK over the summer months many people might have been able to sympathise with the cry of the ancient mariner as floods hit towns and villages the length and breadth of Britain. They could only sit back and watch as the dirty, contaminated water flooded their homes and businesses and there seemed to be water everywhere…

We in the UK certainly seem to have an insatiable thirst for water – in 2006 alone we consumed 2275 million litres of bottled water and indeed during the summer floods many households were grateful of the fact that they had easy access to bottled water when their own mains water supplies were contaminated.

But the availability of safe drinking water is of much greater concern for millions more people across the world.

• It is estimated that 1.1 billion people in the world do not have access to safe water; this is roughly one sixth of the world's population.
• 2.6 billion people in the world do not have access to adequate sanitation; this is roughly two fifths of the world's population.
• 1.8 million children die every year as a result of diseases caused by unclean water and poor sanitation. This amounts to around 5000 deaths a day.

(Figures taken from the Human Development report 2006)

This is why we in Glengormley Methodist have decided to support the work of WaterAid, a charity whose aim is:

…to overcome poverty by enabling the world’s poorest people to gain access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene education.

The Harvest celebrations in the church will focus in on the work of WaterAid and the need to provide safe drinking water to millions of people across the world.

You have a chance to become involved in supporting the work of the charity by making a donation which will be used in their development work.

Please get involved in this project and provide someone with safe clean water.

(For more information visit the WaterAid website)