As the Southbank sizzled some Londoners chose the River Thames over the beach.
Today, as temperatures in London soared to the highest levels in years, a group of African and Asian Londoners wearing traditional dress, accompanied by campaigners, carried jerry cans from the River Thames to Downing Street. They handed in 80,000 letters from the British public urging leaders at this year’s G8 summit to address the appalling injustice that leaves billions of people worldwide without clean water or basic sanitation.
Their journey took them up over Westminster Bridge, past the House of Commons and Big Ben, finishing at Downing Street in the scorching heat
The campaigners recreated the experience that’s a reality for millions of people around the world. As the collectors of water, women spend hours each day walking and queuing to collect water for their families. Often, the water they work so hard to collect is dirty, polluted and unsafe to drink.
The walk took place in support of End Water Poverty, a global campaign that aims to bring an end to the global water and sanitation crisis. The coalition is formed of over 150 organisations from around the world, who are all demanding urgent action and leadership from donors and governments alike to address the global sanitation and water crisis. Coalition partners include: WaterAid, Tearfund and Unicef.
Steve Cockburn, End Water Poverty International Campaigns Coordinator said. "If London ran out of water on a day like today there would be outrage. We want Gordon Brown to be just as outraged that 4,000 children are dying every day in the poorest parts the world because they lack clean water and safe sanitation.
“The G8 summit next week provides a perfect opportunity for the Prime Minister to stand up for the world’s poor and ensures their rights to the most basic elements of life - taps and toilets - are realised in full. Only by doing this can their promises to fight poverty be kept."
Leaders at next week’s G8 have been mandated to address this global crisis. Historically political leaders have not given water and sanitation high priority, and the women will call on Gordon Brown to show leadership and talk taps and toilets in L’Aquila, Italy.
“Surely the Prime Minister would insist upon urgent action if he arrived in Italy next week and there were no toilet facilities and dirty water was served up at the negotiation tables,” Cockburn concluded.