A FUNDRAISING effort by Thames Water - and customers - has seen them reach their target of £2 million to help people without water in some of the poorest parts of the world.

The company, which supplies homes in Swindon, fulfilled its pledge to raise £2 million for WaterAid over the past four years – £1 million each for the charity’s work across the world and for four impoverished communities in Bangladesh.

Thames4Bangladesh, launched in 2011, finally raised £2,142,529 through corporate sponsorship, customers giving and a series of remarkable fund-raising ventures, including an annual raft race on the Thames, quiz nights, sponsored runs and its traditional Swindon Christmas pantomime.

Two clay pigeon shoots themselves raised a remarkable total of almost £200,000.

Accepting the cheque during a celebration at Reading’s Madejski Stadium on Tuesday (JUNE 30), WaterAid chief executive Barbara Frost paid tribute to Thames Water’s continuing support for the charity.

In its 34-year existence, the charity has received around £25 million in donations from the company, enabling it to transform the lives of two million people across the world.

“Thank you for all the wonderful things you’ve done,” she said. “For all your innovative and creative ideas, your emotion, leadership and passion.”

She paid tribute to the Thames4Bangladesh project, the first time any company has adopted specific areas on which to focus its fundraising efforts.

Four towns, Shakhipur, Paikgacha, Fulbaria and Kalaroa, have benefited from amenities like new water and sanitary facilities, innovative rainwater harvesting systems, water purification plants and hygiene education programmes, all funded directly from the efforts of the company, its employees, customers and partner contractors.

Thames Water chief executive Martin Baggs said: “I wanted Thames4Bangladesh to have the same feel as the old Blue Peter appeals – I wanted our people to be able to see the fund-raising ‘thermometer’ rise.

"I wanted to bring back the personal feeling, to know where the money was going."

He joined a delegation of Thames Water employees who visited the towns over the four years to see for themselves the work that needed to be done and saw the impact the fund-raising had on Bangladesh.

He said: “My first thought on the visit was to see the engineering work going on but that’s not what it’s about.

“It’s about people and the biggest thing I learned from my visits was the importance of education – educating people about sanitation and providing the clean facilities necessary for children to go to school.”

Tim Clark, chairman of WaterAid, described Thames4Bangladesh as “an extraordinary and hugely influential project”.

He added: “When you go to Bangladesh [to see the Thames Water-funded projects] you can see the triumph of the human spirit in the face of extraordinary adversity.”