WaterAid Australia

The Hon. T.T. NGO (15:52): I rise today to speak about an international organisation called WaterAid Australia that is doing great things to make sure all people around the world have access to clean water. I recently attended WaterAid Australia's gala ball in Adelaide. It was an event that celebrated the organisation's 20 years of providing clean water and improving sanitation and hygiene issues to people living without access to these basic human needs.

To put the organisation in context, Australia was one of the four founding members of WaterAid International, along with the United Kingdom, America and Sweden. WaterAid Australia was originally founded in Victoria, and South Australia played an important role in its establishment. Karlene Maywald, a former minister for water in the Labor Rann government, is currently Chair of the WaterAid Australia board.

WaterAid Australia is now a part of a major international foundation, working alongside six other members—that is, America, Canada, India, Japan, the UK and Sweden. The organisation began its journey funding projects in Papua New Guinea and then Timor-Leste in 2005.

During the past 20 years the organisation has supported water, sanitation and hygiene programs in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Malawi, Nepal, Mozambique and Tanzania, with funding from the Australian government. In many of those countries taps, wells and pipes delivering clean water simply do not exist. Even when this type of infrastructure does exist, water supply services are most often not accessible, nor are they made to last.

Consequently, WaterAid continues to remain resolutely focused on tackling three essential issues: clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene. Without all three, people cannot live dignified, healthy lives. A lack of clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene traps people into poverty, often keeping children out of school and adults out of work. In many parts of the world, it is the women and young girls who are given the job of fetching water, which often involves walking long distances leading to negative impacts on their education and ability to work.

WaterAid Australia has launched national campaigns to boost public awareness and government support. I was told a WaterAid Australia fundraising dinner in Sydney raised almost half a million dollars and another in Victoria raised more than $300,000 and here in South Australia we have raised $230,000. This is an organisation that has demonstrated its professionalism and success, growing its fundraising achievements to over $10 million annually.

As I learnt at the Adelaide fundraising dinner, WaterAid has had a profound impact on improving the lives of millions of people. As climate change makes water scarcity more of an issue in many parts of the world, WaterAid is working on helping communities establish and manage sustainable water systems.

The organisation involves each community it works with in every step, from project planning right through to training on maintaining water systems that have been installed. One particular program WaterAid Australia runs is the Grant Hill Graduate Program. This program employs around 30 full-time staff in Australia and 40 staff on funded programs in other countries. The program's collaborative work has helped to deliver clean water and sanitation to people in Cambodia, the Solomon Islands and Myanmar.

WaterAid is working hard to create a world where everyone everywhere has access to clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene by 2030—such basic and essential human rights.