Priest lives on ten litres of water a day

Fr Rob with his daily supply

With a hosepipe ban due to come into effect in the South East shortly, Arundel & Brighton priest, Fr Rob Esdaile from Thames Ditton parish in Surrey, pledged to live for a week (March 10-16) on just 10 litres of water a day. That's how much water people in the poorest countries often have to survive on each day.

Fr Rob, from Our Lady of Lourdes church, Hampton Court Way, Thames Ditton, aimed to raise £2,000 to pay for a well in a poor community in the Third World through CAFOD.

To add to the challenge, he walked a mile to a different parishioner's house each morning to collect his day's water supply – symbolising the long distances many in the Third World (typically the women and girls in a family) have to walk in search of water.

A ‘bucketometer’, designed by a parishioner, will hang from the church's sanctuary wall to measure progress, descending to floor-level week by week as the parish reaches its target.

Appropriately, Fr Rob's water challenge ended with his arrival at Launde Abbey in Leicestershire, where he was leading a Retreat weekend for CAFOD supporters on the theme of “Thirst for Change”.

He commented: “Despite the theme of the retreat, I did celebrate my arrival there with a shower!”

"This was a really interesting challenge, radically changing the way I think about my own water use, never mind any other effects. When I turn on the tap in the kitchen I waste 5 litres of water before I get hot water from the tank; and it’s the same when I switch on the shower. That’s an entire day’s water supply for someone in the Third World wasted before I’ve even had breakfast," he said.