SOUTH East Water and its customers have raised more than £22,000 over the past year for the industry-backed charity WaterAid which has just marked its 36th birthday.

From the outset the company has supported and promoted WaterAid’s work.

Over this time more than £2.3 million - including gift aid – has been donated to WaterAid to help more than 195,000 people gain access to safe, clean water.

Money for the charity, founded by the water industry, has been raised through a wide range of fundraising activities.

These include a WaterAid lottery, the Severn Trent Mountain Challenge and individual sponsored activities such as staff taking part in the London Marathon.

Boosting the total for this year is a South East Water team which has signed up to the Water Innovators Challenge to solve problems based on real-life water and sanitation issues faced by the WaterAid team in Nicaragua.

There 800,000 people still do not have access to clean, safe drinking water.

As part of the challenge the team needs to raise £5,000 and has got off to a great start by taking part in the in the Severn Trent Mountain Challenge, trekking ten miles through the Peak District.

WaterAid was founded in 1981 when the UK water industry joined forces at the Thirsty World Conference to discuss its response to a global crisis that had left billions of people without clean water or proper sanitation.

Steve George, customer services director at South East Water, said: “WaterAid is very close to our hearts and the fact that our customers so generously support our efforts is a great tribute to the charity and to everyone involved in our fundraising activities.

“We wish WaterAid a very happy birthday.”

South East Water is a UK supplier of drinking water to 2.1 million consumers in Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire and Berkshire and is a private limited company.

Its water efficiency trailer tours its supply region in the summer.