A Bradford Oxfam worker has told of her horror at seeing desperate children scrambling to drink drips leaking from a water pipe in Africa.

Jane Beesley spent three weeks in Chad where thousands of refugees from war-torn neighbouring Sudan are pouring over the border.

She is used to terrible scenes in her role as communications officer for Oxfam but the 46-year-old, from Eccleshill, said the sight of children bending backwards with their mouths wide open to catch the precious water went straight to the heart.

She said: "They had waited for hours in 50C heat with plastic carriers and when the tanker arrived there was a scramble to catch the trickle of water escaping from the pipe connected to the tank.

"A huge crowd gathered just around the drips."

She said the area around the camp was littered with the bodies of donkeys - vital for transport and to carry food and water - which had died because there was not enough water.

"They are hardy animals and used to conditions out there.

"If they are dying it must be bad," she said.

Jane, a former training manager at Bradford Council, said money was needed to provide water engineers and public health experts for the region, which is barely coping.

Children are suffering from eye infections and coughs and one man she saw had lost half a hand.

She said Chad was in danger of becoming a "forgotten" crisis as Iraq had dominated the headlines in the past few months.

There are around six camps at the moment with people living in rows of tents but a further ten are expected to be built to cope with the flood of people escaping the war.

The rains are due but they will not supply enough water and will wash roads away, making aid deliveries tougher still.

Jane said the team was shocked when they were told that 11 people had died from diarrhoea in a single day.

"We were stunned and thought: 'we were too late for them'," she said. "People work in these conditions every day and it is still upsetting."

She said the people were hospitable and very kind and even offered her their water when she went to check on their progress.

"You think how precious it is and think, would you give it away if you were in their position?

"The country is teetering on the edge of an enormous disaster, cholera is a major threat and if one person gets it then hundreds are at risk. But donations will make a difference."

l Oxfam has launched a £1 million appeal to help the people of Chad and Sudan.

Donations can be made at Oxfam shops, via the website www.

oxfam.org.uk or by calling 0845 300 7070.