WaterAid teams up with environmental group to bring clean water to communities in north India

A partnership of WaterAid and FTSE 100 environmental and healthcare group of 45 companies, Halma, has claimed to have brought “life-saving clean, drinking water” to more than 10,000 people in two regions of northern India.

The partnership has focused its campaign on the regions of Bhagalpur and Buxar in India’s infamous Arsenic Belt where most water sources are heavily contaminated with the toxic metalloid which is slowly poisoning the populations. WaterAid said it “drew upon Halma’s expertise, technology and fundraising to help address one of the world’s long-term challenges: the increasing demands on water.”

To tackle water accessibility and quality, WaterAid and Halma said they had joined forces to raise funds and lend their expertise to provide:

• over 18,000 water quality tests;

• new installed water filter systems in 70 schools and healthcare facilities;

• safe water during floods for over 7,000 people; and

• training for 1,800 local volunteers to become community water testers.

Halma water quality testing subsidiary, Palintest, donated portable test kits to support the campaign. It tested 50 drinking water sources for several dangerous contaminants in the two districts and sent 18,000 individual arsenic tests “ensuring that families in the affected villages and surrounding region can now be kept safe from arsenic-contaminated water.”

WaterAid’s chief executive, Tim Wainwright, said: “Thanks to the support of Halma over the past two years we've been able to extend our reach and educate more local communities in northern India about water-related diseases and what they can do to protect and save precious lives.”

The Halma-WaterAid partnership is aligned to goal six of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals – clean water and sanitation for all.

Halma said nearly two thirds of its revenue in 2022 contributed to four UN Sustainable Development Goals that are most aligned to its business: health, clean water, infrastructure and sustainable cities.