CAWST

Every 20 seconds, a child dies from a water-related disease. - United Nations Human Development Report

Unclean water and the lack of basic sanitation kill more people every year than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined - children are affected the most. Diarrhoeal disease from water related illnesses affects the ability of children to absorb nutrition, thus affecting the growth of both their brains and their bodies. Poor health and the hours spent fetching water for their families means they cannot go to school. This affects their ability to earn a living in the long term.

About 1 out of every 10 people in our world fetch and drink their water untreated from rivers, streams, canals and shallow dug wells; 2.6 billion people or 76 times the population of the Canada, defecate in the open or in shallow holes – feces is the main contaminant of water.

The CAWST Solution

1. Engage - Create awareness of the issues
2. Educate - Give people the knowledge and skills to do something about the issues
3. Empower - Help people discover the confidence that they can do it themselves

CAWST's approach starts with education, not infrastructure, and provides the knowledge and skills local organizations need to serve their communities. CAWST engages and supports organizations that implement WASH projects using a model that incorporates awareness raising as well as longer-term coaching and consulting to help implementers initiate, scale up and continually improve their programs. Our clients include local non-governmental organizations (NGOs), multinational NGOs, governments, research institutions, private sector organizations and individuals in 69 countries. CAWST has Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.

To ensure that all families’ most fundamental basic need is met, people need to be able to provide clean water for themselves. Personal action happens when people are educated about the relationship between water, sanitation, hygiene and health, and trained in the simple solutions to their issues. Training and continued support empowers people to continue developing, to look for ways to improve and expand their water and sanitation systems and to address other issues related to their own community development.

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