EVERY day we wash, brush our teeth, use the toilet and drink clean water without giving a second thought to how lucky we are.

But for millions of people around the world, access to water suitable for drinking and sanitation is a basic human right that they are denied – with potentially deadly consequences.

Richard Brown, a director at Chandler’s Ford pump rental company Selwood, has seen first-hand how communities can be blighted by poor sanitation – and can be transformed with a little help.

He has just returned from a 5,000-mile mission to Madagascar, one of the poorest countries in the world, as part of a campaign headed by Wessex Water and its partners in support of WaterAid.

There, Richard and his fellow team members helped dig canals, carry water and sand and build sanitation facilities, and also met many of the local villagers that the projects are helping.

This was Richard’s second visit to a WaterAid project area – in 2012 he was emotionally affected by the severe devastation he witnessed in Burkina Faso, caused by appalling sanitation there.

“Nothing prepares you for seeing it first hand,” he says.

“To visit somewhere where there is abject poverty, no water or sanitation is difficult and incredibly humbling – it’s emotionally draining.

“You see and hear of children who are ill and of people walking a long, long way to get water that isn’t very clean anyway.

"You see people collecting water from a stream and then minutes later, cows are standing there drinking and peeing in the same place.

"This is the best source of water these people have.

“I’ve seen babies that were forced to drink from a river bed that was almost dry. Most of us have children or grandchildren. To see that really hit home and made me think how lucky we are.

"That’s one of the reasons why, following the visit to Burkina Faso, I was determined to try to help make a difference in Madagascar.”

WaterAid, a non-governmental organisation focused on improving access to safe water, sanitation and improved hygiene worldwide, has been working in Madagascar since 1999.

Richard’s trip was part of a £100,000 project focused on the Faratshiho district, one of the worst affected areas, where WaterAid is helping to install gravity-fed systems to give villagers access to clean water for the first time.

Although conditions there were not as bad as they were in Burkina Faso, the experience was still an emotional one.

Richard said: “One of my most poignant memories of this trip is of when we visited Marohanina village, a community where work was already under way to install a gravity fed system.

“We received an overwhelming welcome from the villagers – the joy of knowing that they would soon have a supply is really indescribable.

“It would also save them walking long distances to collect dirty water, which in turn leaves them able to concentrate on being able to work and build a local economy.

“Sadly, the main elder of this village died on the evening of our visit. But as we returned the following day to pay our respects, the villagers told us of his great happiness and delight knowing that his village would now be able to prosper.

"The villagers told us that meant so much to him, and he had died a very happy man.”

Find out more about WaterAid’s operations in Madagascar at wateraid.org/mg.

Richard has launched his own fundraising appeal and hopes to raise £2,500 from supporters. Donate at justgiving.com/fundraising/richardbrown2016.