clean water

Oxfam and partners are currently assessing the scale of Cyclone Mocha’s devastation to mount a humanitarian response to provide clean water, sanitation and hygiene facilities, as well as emergency cash and food. 

The military coup in Burkina Faso late January made headlines. The registration that same month of over 160,000 newly displaced Burkinabé, a near-record high figure, did not. The jump marks the second biggest monthly increase since the humanitarian crisis started in the country over three years ago, warned the Norwegian Refugee Council, Action Against Hunger, Médecins du Monde France and Oxfam.

In reaction to the coronavirus pandemic reaching 1 million confirmed cases, Oxfam interim Executive Director Chema Vera, said today: "This is a grim milestone that must spur the international community to take immediate action. We must tackle this pandemic with single-minded determination, and as one."

Providing clean water and access to sanitation to millions of vulnerable people in the world is an essential part of our humanitarian work. From Mozambique to Indonesia, and Nepal to South Sudan, find out how we are combining decades of expertise with innovation to get clean, safe water to the people who need it the most.

In rich countries, clean water is so plentiful and easily available that we simply take it for granted. Yet around the world, diseases from unsafe water kill more people each year than any other cause, making this one of the world’s most urgent health issues. Water is central to almost every aspect of Oxfam’s work.

Three months after widespread flooding that has affected over 5 million people in southern Pakistan, a critical shortage of funding and broad international disinterest has left millions of people at risk of illness, malnutrition and cold as the winter closes in.

As rains continue to lash the flood ravaged Sindh province in Pakistan, Oxfam warns of a severe risk of a public health crisis if clean water and sanitation is not urgently provided.

Oxfam is today scaling up its aid effort to reach 200,000 people affected by the severe floods that have hit Colombia in recent weeks. The floods have affected more than two million people in 28 out of 32 districts in the country.

The international community urgently needs to inject more funds and effort to stem a spiraling crisis in flood-hit Pakistan. A new United Nations appeal for funds will be issued on Friday.

Oxfam today warned of a public health catastrophe in flood-hit Pakistan. While funding had stalled in recent weeks, the number of cases of reported disease, numbers of people displaced, and numbers of people affected by the floods continue to rise each day.