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Wilcock has had a fascination with water since childhood. He was brought up on a Stonyhurst farm and his granddad used to call him the “water bailiff” because he was never away from the sandstone trough in the farmyard.

He has worked for United Utilities for almost 30 years and as an Aqueduct Controller helps to look after the 150 miles of pipes which provide water from the Lake District to Manchester every day.

Appalled by the death of more than 5000 children a day because of a lack of clean water and poor sanitation, he got involved with Wateraid in 1981 as soon as it was formed by British Water companies. 

He gives talks throughout the north west on the work of the charity and in September 2008 he went on a trip to Uganda - this year's nominated project country.

He describes the trip, how life in Uganda has parallels with Lancashire 150 years ago and how Wateraid is transforming people's lives particularly women...

"I have been involved with Wateraid since it was set up because I could see the massive contrast between the high quality water being supplied to the people in England and the water available to millions of people in the developing world. It was totally unfit for human consumption and contributing to the death of thousands of children every single day.

As a parent I feel deeply about this especially as just £15 can provide a person with clean water - the most fundamental human right. 

The children of Rwenjojo-Ntooma village

I have been doing presentations on the work of Wateraid for years but this was my first Overseas trip where I got to witness the work first hand.

On arriving in Uganda - the first thing that struck me is how green it is. The average annual rainfall around Lake Victoria is 2.00m. Everyone was talking about climate change because of the increasing extremes of flood and drought there.

On the first day of the visit we were taken to the slums of the capital Kampala where tens of thousands of desperately poor people are existing in flimsy shacks - packed stiflingly close together with open ditches swollen with garbage and sewage snaking between dwelling places. Standing out solid and clean amongst the chaos were the toilets and wash blocks recently provided by Wateraid and partners. They serve hundreds of people and cost just a few pence to use. The fee is easily afforded by the majority of the community, and funds a full time toilet attendant and the periodic emptying of the latrines, a completely self sufficient solution. The fee is waived for the old and truly destitute. The community really appreciates the facility. The slums were desperate places to live and were prone to regular flooding indicated by the tide mark half way up the walls of many of the houses.

The next day we were off to remote rural villages in Masindi district in the north part of the country, where people were subsisting on what ever food they could grow, totally dependant on their own resources to keep themselves from starvation. It was humbling to witness the daily struggle of these people whose crops were constantly under threat from the encroaching bush and opportunists such as rats and Colobus monkeys...and yet they never complained!

Sobering

We helped to collect water from cattle watering holes long distances from the settlements carrying the heavy loads back to be used for cooking, drinking and washing - a journey that had to be made several times a day. To witness little children drinking this same filthy water from battered enamel mugs and knowing that killer diseases such as cholera and typhoid could easily be present was a sobering experience. However, it is a relief to know that their struggle to find clean safe water will soon be over.

The next part of the visit was to communities where clean safe water and sanitation had already been provided. Wateraid are active in 15 of the 83 districts of Uganda, developing model projects based on local needs and conditions in the very worst parts of the country. The strategy is to develop simple practical and cost effective solutions in these most difficult areas and then try to persuade the Ugandan government’s water sector to use them as a model of best practice. In these improved villages, ample clean water was being provided through the installation of boreholes and concrete rainwater harvesting jars which are constructed in-situ outside people’s houses and collect water that falls on their cleaned corrugated roofs.

Grace from Baba Ayuko village

Warm welcome

Peter Juko of Bunjako village standing proudly in front of his new water jar explained to us how the old water source was reached by crossing a very fast road that bi-sected the village. Instances of children being killed on the road and rape attacks on both women and children by opportunist passing motorists had dropped to zero since the new water source had been installed.

In all the communities that we visited we received a genuinely warm welcome but none more so than in those where water and sanitation was established. These communities were really starting to believe in themselves, a tangible spirit of optimism was so much in evidence.  A welcome meeting in one village touched us all. As we sat on wooden benches in the centre, we watched the colourful and exuberant village ladies performing traditional local dances, and when all had subsided we were addressed in Swahili by one of the village elders and a member of the water and sanitation committee translated. “Water is life, without water you cannot kick, but we are kicking because of you, you have opened our eyes and our minds.”

We all wondered at her determination to provide for her children who looked so well cared for despite the difficulties their mother must have encountered recently. Mary, one of our group from Wales who had been given a cockerel the day before by a grateful family we had visited in another community, was so impressed that she decided to pass the chicken onto this lady.

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