CrossCountry WaterAid partnership

The sponsored wells, which have been installed near five rural villages across Zimbabwe, are now helping to provide clean drinking and washing water for villagers while also assisting farmers with crop irrigation. The wells, which are relied on heavily by remote villages across Africa, have the ability to pump water from depths of 50 metres and can produce one litre of water per second.

Pump Aid developed the award-winning Elephant Pump technology, a low cost, community centred approach to sustainable water production. The technology has been so successful that Pump Aid has provided a lifetime's supply of clean water to over one million people across Zimbabwe and Malawi.

Andy Cooper, Managing Director at CrossCountry said: "Aquaid supply the drinking water for all of our offices and service centres across the UK and as part of that deal, we were delighted to have the opportunity to sponsor the five Elephant Pumps. It's well-documented how tough life is in certain parts of Zimbabwe and we have been touched by several heart-felt letters we have received from villagers and children who have directly benefited from the scheme. It's not only lack of water which affects people, but it's estimated that 4,000 African children die every day from poor sanitation. The whole scheme is a brilliant idea and lets businesses here in the UK lend their support to meaningful projects in poorer countries - projects which directly benefit those in need. We're glad to be doing our bit and hope to do more."

Scott Barnbrook, Branch Manager at Aquaid's Birmingham and Midlands Central office added: "Aquaid have now managed to topple the £6 million mark in donations to both Christian Aid and Pump Aid. This is with the help and continued support of morally aware companies such as CrossCountry who have helped via Aquaid."

For more details please visit the How We Help link at www.aquaid.co.uk

Notes to editors

CrossCountry started operating on 11 November 2007. The franchise, which is the most extensive in the UK, will run until 31 March 2016. For further information on CrossCountry services and future franchise plans log on to www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk.

CrossCountry is part of the Arriva group, which is owned by Deutsche Bahn. Arriva is a leading pan-European public transport operators with more than 42,000 employees and operations across 12 European countries. The link to Arriva is www.arriva.co.uk. The link to Deutsche Bahn is www.deutschebahn.com.

CrossCountry is now live on Facebook at facebook.com/crosscountrytrains.

Follow CrossCountry on Twitter via twitter.com/crosscountryuk.

CrossCountry facts and figures

STATIONS SERVED: 118
ROUTE MILES: 1,478
WEEKDAY SERVICES: 295
PASSENGERS CARRIED: Over 30 million passenger journeys a year anticipated
ANNUAL TRAIN MILEAGE: Approximately 16 million
EMPLOYEES: Approximately 1,600
LONGEST TRAIN SERVICE: 08.20 Aberdeen to Penzance (774 miles)

Select this link to view the Press Release PDF

If your browser does not recognise the file type PDFa free Adobe Acrobat Reader can be downloaded from the Adobe website.