As part of its worldwide Waterdrop initiative, Xylem recently took 14 customers and employees from the UK, Germany and France to Cambodia on a volunteer trip. The company’s Waterdrop loyalty scheme has been designed to enable consulting engineers to bring safe, clean water to communities in need by learning about, selecting or specifying Xylem products and services. For every drop, or loyalty point, the company will donate $1 (USD) to build water towers for people who lack access to safe drinking water. Participants also have the chance to win ‘the experience of a lifetime’ – a volunteer trip to construct and install these water towers at various locations around the world.
There were three winners from the UK on the trip to Cambodia: David Everington, Senior Mechanical Engineer at Cundall, Kevin Sloyan, owner of Aish Electro-Mechanical Services and Martyn Dunne, Principal Mechanical Engineer at Hydrock. Over the course of two days, they joined with other volunteers to help build three water towers at the elementary schools of Roka Village and Chhouk Sar Village, in partnership with Planet Water Foundation, a US based, non-profit organisation.
The towers are designed for quick construction, one-day installation and easy manual maintenance. They operate without power, last up to 10 years, and use an ultra-filtration filter system to produce 10,000 liters of water each day – enough to provide 1,000 people with sustainable access to clean water both for drinking and hand-washing purposes.
In total, 3,000 Cambodian youth, their families and communities now have access to clean water through the Waterdrop initiative. The team also worked closely with nearly six hundred pupils of the two schools, educating them on the importance of proper hygiene and water use: according to Water.org, every year an estimated 842,000 people globally – approximately 2,300 people per day – die of diseases caused by inadequate sanitation and drinking water.
For more information visit www.xylemwaterdrop.com
