WaterAid
International NGO focused on water and sanitation
WaterAid is an international non-governmental organization, focused on water, sanitation and hygiene. It was set up in 1981 as a response to the UN International Drinking Water decade (1981–1990). As of 2025, it is operating in 30 countries.
The organisation was first established by the UK water industry on 21 July 1981 as a charitable trust at their main office premises in London and established its first projects in Zambia and Sri Lanka. In 2010, it became a federation, comprising, as of 2025, members in Australia, Canada, India, Japan, Sweden, the UK and the US, and regional offices and country programmes in a further 23 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Activities involve providing people with clean water, safe sanitation, hygiene behaviour change and advocacy with governments and water utilities. Its income has moved from £1 million per annum in 1987 to £113 million in 2018–19.
History
WaterAid was founded in 1981 by members of the UK water industry at the Thirsty Third World conference held in London. WaterAid was formally established as a charity in the UK on 21 July 1981. King Charles III has been its president since 1991.
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This entry incorporates text from “WaterAid” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.