Council bottles it for African aid
Thousands of African people will soon be toasting Liverpool – with a glass of clean water - thanks to a life saving scheme at the city’s leisure centres.
Liverpool City Council’s decision to stock Thirsty Planet bottled water at vending machines in all of its 15 Lifestyles Centres has now raised enough money to pay for 20 specially devised water pumps for communities in Malawi or Zimbabwe.
The ‘Elephant pumps’, which cost £500 each and can be maintained without any specialist skills or equipment, will be installed in three months time - almost a year to the day since the council signed the deal which raises 5p for every bottle sold.
Since then 200,000 bottles have been bought and each Elephant pump, the brainchild of charity Pump Aid, will provide a community of 250 people with 40 Litres of clean water per person per day.
Councillor Tina Gould, Assistant Executive Member to the Leader of Liverpool City Council, said: ‘’It’s fantastic that people’s lives are going to be saved and transformed by people buying a bottle of Thirsty Planet from our Lifestyles Centres. As a Fairtrade council we take our role in making a difference to the global community very seriously and hope others will follow our lead in supporting projects like Pump Aid.’’
Paul Martin, Managing Director of Waterbrands which produces Thirsty Planet, will be presenting a certificate in recognition of Liverpool City Council reaching elite ‘gold’ status, awarded to organisations which raise enough money to fund 10 or more pumps.
Paul said: “The support that the people of Liverpool is giving Thirsty Planet and Pump Aid is tremendous. Simply by buying Thirsty Planet you are helping to improve health and even save lives in some of the poorest communities in the world.”
Since its launch two years ago, Thirsty Planet has raised more than £940,000 for Pump Aid which has been operating in rural areas of Africa for 10 years and says improving access to clean water for drinking, irrigation, toilets and nutritional education is critical to breaking the cycle of poverty and preventing cholera epidemics.
The pumps are built in response to grassroots demand with the local community assisting in the building process, providing materials such as bricks, sand, stones and unskilled labour.
Rachel Phillips, Campaigns and Communications Officer at Pump Aid, said: ‘’Pump Aid is thrilled to be working with Liverpool City Council on a project which helps to provide people in rural areas of Africa with access to clean productive water. We are looking to gaining similar support from other organisations and councils in the North West region which we hope will follow the same steps as Liverpool City Council through selling bottles of Thirsty Planet water.’’
Liverpool's Lifestyles Centres are supplied by one of the country’s leading vending machine operators, Autobar. Each bottle of Thirsty Planet costs £1.20.
