Dragons’ Den entrepreneur Deborah Meaden has named staff from Northumbrian Water as winners in WaterAid’s Water Innovators Programme 2016 for their inventive solutions to improve access to better hygiene in Cambodia.

The ONCE team, based in Durham, was crowned champions of the Solve – Hygiene Challenge title at the awards ceremony in London.

They were selected from over 30 teams from the UK and Australia who took part in the challenge to find water, sanitation and hygiene solutions for real-life projects in Cambodia. The teams have spent the last eight months battling it out to devise solutions for their chosen field of WaterAid’s work.

During the process, they presented a Dragons’ Den-style pitch to key experts at WaterAid, developed project management plans, and refined their team-working and business acumen skills too. The employee development programme is backed by Deborah Meaden.

The Northumbrian Water team devised a way to increase use of a unique hand washing station, the LaBobo, which has been developed to break down the barriers to more widespread improvements to health through increased hand washing.

The team set out its plans to increase the appeal and uptake of the LaBobo, achieve more consistent handwashing behaviour and demonstrate how their proposals develop the station into an integral part of the wider hygiene practice in the home.

They also raised vital funds for WaterAid by hosting a gala dinner for Northumbrian Water and partner companies. The team invited along guest speaker Sugata Mitra, winner of the Ted Prize, who talked about his ‘hole in the wall’ experiment and his ideas to build a school in the cloud.

Lynda Carty from Northumbrian Water said:

“We’d really encourage other businesses and teams to join in with this brilliant challenge next year. We found the whole experience invigorating and inspiring. We are elated to have won, but most of all, we’re so glad to be able to offer potential innovative solutions for the WaterAid team and partners working in Cambodia.”

At the awards, Deborah Meaden, said:

“Water Innovators provides an opportunity for teams from different businesses to not only stretch their imaginations and skills, but to help solve some very real problems for millions of people living in Cambodia without clean water and sanitation.

“The winners cleverly combined their skills and talents to come up with their design and concept and crucially, the solutions found are not only simple, but affordable and sustainable.

“By taking part in the Water Innovators Programme, these teams and businesses have had a unique experience to test and learn the qualities needed for business. They’ve also supported WaterAid’s work delivering safe water and toilets to the worlds’ poorest people in Cambodia. It’s life-changing. Now that’s a win-win deal for everyone.”

Four million people in Cambodia lack access to clean water, while more than nine million have nowhere safe to go to the toilet – a fatal combination which means that people are dying every day from preventable waterborne diseases. WaterAid’s work there is vital to support the Government to ensure universal access by 2025.

Taber Hand, Director of Wetlands Work!, one of WaterAid’s sanitation partners in Cambodia, commented:

“Through this innovative Programme, partners such as ours, gain access to global expertise that is otherwise completely beyond our reach. This is incredibly useful to us at ‘Wetlands Work!’, as we are isolated in a small corner of the developing world.”

Find out more about Water Innovators 2017 and how to get involved at www.wateraid.org/uk/waterinnovators or by emailing This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it