World Water Day - Castle Bromwich's Nick Connoll on his African LifeStraw Adventure

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World Water Day takes place on 22 March 2018 and aims to shed light on the impact of water shortages worldwide and in particular the environmental, ecological and humanitarian impact of lack of access to clean water.

Castle Bromwich’s communications manager Nick Connoll was part of the JLR team that travelled to Bungoma in Kenya to deliver a project providing rural schoolchildren with access to drinkable water via the LifeStraw product in partnership with Climate Care.

“When you take part in a project like this the first thing you think of is the kind of living conditions you expect of the people you are out there to help. Ashamed was how I felt after the first day because although the people of Bungoma had few material possessions I’ve never seen so many smiles.

“Water is a hugely important resource for JLR and the point of this was to show our sustainable attitude to water by giving the kids out there access to drinkable water at school in the hope it would increase their attendance and reduce the chance of them contracting waterborne diseases.

“Waterborne disease is the biggest killer in Africa so to be out there and having a hand in providing something that we take for granted back home was really humbling.

“It changed the way I look at water usage when I got home after a week. Dripping taps and long showers weren’t something I thought about before but what we experienced in Kenya completely changed my viewpoint.

“I think we all have a duty to appreciate the things that we seem to have in abundance because in other parts of the world those same things are scarce and they’re the things that make the most difference.

“The team I went out with were awesome as well. They’re not colleagues anymore, they’re friends and they all came back with the same view that water isn’t something to take for granted.”