A charity placed an invitation to drink a cupful of dirty water outside Shepherd’s Bush Tube station last week.

The posters, and a cooler with alternative clean water inside, were designed by WaterAid to draw attention to the fact that 783 million people in developing countries are forced to drink dirty, dangerous water.

The charity’s stand highlighted the dangers of drinking dirty water – the risk of dysentery, cholera, diarrhoea, typhoid or even death from thousands of types of bacteria.

Lisa Martin, of WaterAid, said: “The sad reality is that 2,000 children die every day, due to dirty drinking water and poor sanitation. They really have no choice. Drink it and they might die, but don’t drink it and they definitely will. That’s not a choice at all.

“We want to reach out to Londoners and make them realise how lucky we all are to have clean drinking water at the turn of a tap and ask them to make a donation, no matter how small”

For more information visit www.wateraid.org