CHIPPENHAM business Openit is hoping to flush away poverty by twinning their toilets with those in developed countries.

Openit, an office services provider based at Avonbridge House in Chippenham, has taken corporate social responsibility to a new level by sponsoring its own toilets to help build loos abroad.

The Chippenham business has teamed up with Toilet Twinning, which helps people living in some of the world's poorest communities to have clean water and a decent toilet.

When Toilet Twinning builds a latrine, a photo and its co-ordinates are taken, and those making donations by twinning their own toilets receive a certificate and the photo.

For a £60 donation, a company, or individual, can twin a toilet with a latrine in countries from Afghanistan to Zambia.

David Brown, managing director of Openit, said: “We take our toilets here in the UK for granted and therefore we can easily forget the consequences of not having good sanitation.

“Other countries do not have that kind of heritage and therefore they suffer more disease, higher infant mortality and, for us at Openit, it’s good to know we may have helped in a small way. Personally I feel we have a social responsibility to help those who are less fortunate.”

It is estimated that around 2.5 billion people, more than a third of the world's population, don’t have somewhere safe, clean and hygienic to go to the toilet.

Nearly one in five child deaths each year is due to diarrhea and more than 1,400 children under five die every day due to unclean water and poor sanitation.

The charity Toilet Twinning is celebrating its fifth anniversary this year and has, to date, twinned 35,000 toilets in 41 countries, helping more than 210,000 people.

To find out more about their work visit www.toilettwinning.org