Mud and music to spread clean water message

28/06/2007

Water worker Jenny Abel braved the mud and rain at this year’s Glastonbury Festival to help raise awareness of the plight of those who do not have access to clean water and sanitation.

Jenny was one of 141 volunteers working at the festival on behalf of WaterAid, which works to bring safe drinking water to the developing world.

She was given backstage access to the many celebrities at the event to encourage them to sign up to support WaterAid. Jenny’s personal highlight was meeting pop star Mark Owen and getting him to pledge his support to the charity.

As well as giving out water to thirsty revellers, Jenny, who works in the demand planning department at Essex & Suffolk Water, also helped towards collecting 12,000 signatures for WaterAid’s End Water Poverty campaign and to raise funds for the charity, which has been adopted by Essex & Suffolk Water.

WaterAid is dedicated to saving lives by providing clean domestic water, sanitation and hygiene education in parts of Africa and Asia.  A child dies every 17 seconds in these parts of the world because of the lack of these everyday essentials.

Jenny, who lives in Braintree, has previously been involved in several projects on behalf of WaterAid. In 2006 she visited Burkina Faso to experience first-hand how millions of people survive without water and sanitation and in May this year she raised just under £16,000 for the charity by organising a horse race day in Great Yarmouth.

Jenny, 25, said: “I was honoured to be asked to represent WaterAid at an event such as Glastonbury.

“As well as having a great time I was also able to raise awareness of the crucial work that WaterAid does in the developing world. For people in this country getting water is as simple as turning on a tap but for more than a billion people in the world’s poorest countries, the lack of clean water can be quite literally a matter of life or death.”

She added: “As we spoke with people there we were able to make the comparison between the long queues for the toilets at an event like Glastonbury and the 2.6 billion people who have nowhere to go to the toilet every day.”

To find out more about WaterAid visit www.wateraid.org.uk

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For further information please contact Claire Bishop on 01245 212010.