Utility Week - authoritative, impartial and essential reading for senior people within utilities, regulators and government
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/603117
UTILITY WEEK | 20TH - 26TH NOVEMBER 2015 | 9 Interview I n many organisations on the eve of launching a major public campaign, there would be a frenzy of nervous energy and anticipation. But when Utility Week goes to visit WaterAid the day before its major new "Deliver Life" campaign goes live, instead of fingernails being chewed and the carpet bring worn through by endless pacing, there is a sense of calm, much of it flowing from chief executive of ten years, Barbara Frost. Under her leadership, WaterAid has expanded almost threefold. In 2005 it had an income of £27 million and worked with 15 countries. Today it has an income of £83 million and works with 37 countries, taking massive strides towards the charity's goal of bringing safe water and sanitation to everyone on the planet within 15 years. Frost welcomes Utility Week into her office and starts chatting enthusiastically about the Deliver Life project, which is understandably front of mind. It is being match- funded by the government and Frost hopes it will raise £10 million to deliver safe water and sanitation supplies to those most in need. It will deliver change for the better. And change is something that, away from WaterAid's work on the ground, Frost is trying to manage and embrace. From the way WaterAid strives to reduce the number of people suffering in extreme poverty around the world, through to its evolving relationship with UK water companies, openness to change is ingrained in the charity and its chief executive. The Deliver Life campaign forms part of WaterAid's new strategy, which aims to go beyond 'just' providing toilets and drinking water supplies to those in need. "The campaign is about the first few days of life and the importance for mothers and babies of having access to clean water to drink and wash in," says Frost. "On one level it is an obvious link between water and health, but so oen health issues get forgotten." The Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone, which killed almost 4,000 people in the country and more than 6,000 in West Africa, is a stark reminder, says Frost, of the importance of hygiene. "Ghastly as it has been, it has highlighted the impor- tance of water sanitation. Unless there is decent hygiene in health facilities, then outbreaks of this illness, which are bound to come again, will be difficult to contain." This health tie-in has been part of a shi towards bigger-picture thinking that is central to WaterAid's lat- est strategy, which was launched in March. It aims to not just provide the services on the ground to give immediate water and sanitation aid to those in the most desperate need, but to garner a deeper, cultural change that will result in more people benefiting. But as Frost states, this shi is actually going back to what is at WaterAid's core. "We were set up 34 years ago and the founding direc- tor [David Collett] came up with an ethos paper and what he suggested was that WaterAid would not do things itself but would always look for partners. "That has shied over the years. At first it was about the technical approach and getting low-cost, sustainable Photo: Georgie Scott