Hounslow, London, May 19, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Al Mustafa Welfare Trust, the international humanitarian organisation that has served the world’s most vulnerable communities for over 40 years, is calling attention to a global water emergency that it warns is disproportionately and devastatingly concentrated in Muslim-majority regions. With more than 2 billion people worldwide lacking access to safe drinking water, the majority living across Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and the Middle East, the charity reports that what has long been a chronic crisis is now accelerating into an acute humanitarian emergency.
In Sub-Saharan Africa alone, over 400 million people lack access to basic water services. In Yemen, more than 16 million people, over half the population, cannot access clean water following a decade of conflict that has systematically destroyed water infrastructure. In Gaza, the situation has reached catastrophic levels: even before the current conflict, an estimated 97% of groundwater was unfit for human consumption. Since hostilities intensified, desalination plants, sewage treatment facilities and water distribution networks have been damaged or destroyed.
“This is not a distant development concern,” said a spokesperson for Al Mustafa Welfare Trust. “For the communities we work with, the absence of clean water is a daily emergency with life-or-death consequences. Women and children walk hours to collect water that will make them ill. Entire harvests fail. And during Ramadan, when families need water to prepare the meals that bookend the daily fast, the crisis compounds in ways that are both practical and deeply painful.”
Al Mustafa Welfare Trust
A Structural Failure of Global Development Investment
Al Mustafa Welfare Trust identifies the root cause of the crisis not in geography or religion, but in the systematic failure of global development investment to reach the communities that need it most. International aid budgets have been cut, climate adaptation funding falls consistently short of pledged commitments, and infrastructure investment in the global south has stalled.
In Gaza specifically, Al Mustafa Welfare Trust’s ground operations delivered through named, accredited partner organisations represent one of the few active channels through which UK donors can direct funds to verified water, food and medical interventions. Aid workers on the ground report families surviving on a fraction of the minimum water supply recommended by international humanitarian standards.
Al Mustafa Welfare Trust
Nearly 18,000 Water Pumps Installed. Millions of Lives Changed.
Since its founding in 1983, Al Mustafa Welfare Trust has installed nearly 18,000 hand water pumps across 25 countries through its Water for Life programme. The impact is measurable and permanent: villages that spent generations collecting contaminated water from rivers now have clean supply within walking distance. Children who missed school to carry water now attend class. Women who spent their mornings on hours-long water runs now have time for work, family and rest.
Unlike emergency food aid, which addresses an immediate need and is consumed, a water well serves a community for decades, a quality that in Islamic tradition defines Sadaqah Jariyah, ongoing charity whose benefit continues long after the donor’s lifetime. Al Mustafa Welfare Trust’s 100% Zakat Policy guarantees that every penny of Zakat donated goes directly to those in need, with no administrative deductions.
How to Help
Al Mustafa Welfare Trust is urging UK donors, policymakers and media to act on three fronts:
- Support the Water Well Appeal and Water for Life programme through Zakat or Sadaqah Jariyah donations.
- Support the Palestine Emergency Appeal, one of the few verified channels for UK donors to fund ground operations in Gaza.
Clean water is not a development goal or distant aspiration. It is a human right and for the communities Al Mustafa Welfare Trust serves, its absence is a matter of life and death.
Al Mustafa Welfare Trust
About Al Mustafa Welfare Trust
Al Mustafa Welfare Trust is a UK-registered international humanitarian charity (Reg. No. 1119831) that has been delivering aid and development programmes to the world’s most vulnerable communities since 1983. Operating across more than 25 countries, the Trust’s programmes include emergency relief, water and sanitation, education, healthcare and livelihood support. Al Mustafa Welfare Trust operates a 100% Zakat Policy.
Key Statistics
Nearly 18,000 hand water pumps installed across 25 countries
- Over 2 billion people worldwide lack access to safe drinking water (WHO/UNICEF)
- 400 million+ people in Sub-Saharan Africa lack basic water services
- 16 million people in Yemen unable to access clean water
- 97% of Gaza’s groundwater was unfit for human consumption prior to the current conflict
Relevant Programmes
- Water for Life Programme: Long-term water infrastructure delivery across Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and the Middle East
- Palestine Emergency Appeal: Verified ground operations in Gaza including water, food and medical intervention
- Water Well Appeal: Sadaqah Jariyah and Zakat-eligible donations for permanent community water infrastructure
Media Contact
Abdul Razzaq Sajid
Al Mustafa Welfare Trust
T: 020 8569 6444
E: [email protected] www.almustafa.org.uk
- Al Mustafa Welfare Trust Warns of Escalating Water Crisis Devastating Muslim Communities Across Three Continents
