Rotarians have teamed up with nongovernmental
organizations in Belgium to bring clean drinking water and improved
sanitation to thousands of families in the poorest districts of
Toamasina, Madagascar. (click below to read more)
The Rotary clubs of Brussel-Cantersteen, Belgium, and Tamatave,
Madagascar, launched the project in 2009 with help from a Rotary
Foundation Matching Grant. Lack of access to clean drinking water and
poor hygiene have contributed to a high mortality rate in Toamasina,
says Luc Daems, president of the Tamatave Water Project.
The effort is nearing completion, with the planned installation of
more than 200 latrines for local families and schools, as well as
drinking fountains to provide clean water for 2,000 people.
Over the past 10 years, the Foundation has awarded more than US$36
million in grants for projects supporting clean water and sanitation.
Individual Rotary clubs have contributed at least another $50 million.
During World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden ,
21-27 August, experts from around the globe will meet to exchange ideas
and develop solutions to the most urgent water-related issues. This
year's program explores challenges to water and sanitation in an
increasingly urbanized world.
Ron Denham, chair of the Water and Sanitation Rotarian Action
Group, says Rotary has played a key role in addressing world water
needs, and that a growing number of nonprofits are embracing its
emphasis on sustainability.
"The core of every successful project is agreement with the
community on its needs, especially the needs of women. It is invariably
women whose lives are drastically affected by improvements," says
Denham.
Many Rotary club and district projects include training in the
technical knowledge needed to maintain equipment, and in the business
skills necessary to manage a water system, such as collecting fees for
operations and repairs.
In 2009, Rotary International and USAID launched the International H2O Collaboration to
implement long-term water, sanitation, and hygiene projects in the
Dominican Republic, Ghana, and the Philippines. Entering its third year,
the collaboration is funding hygiene training and bio-sand water
filters in the Dominican Republic; mechanized water systems, wells,
rainwater collection vessels, and hygiene education benefiting over
85,000 people in more than 110 villages in Ghana; and a project to
improve sewage collection and treatment that will help more than 150,000
people in the Philippines.
Other Rotary club and district water projects include:
- Toilets, showers, and baby-washing facilities provided for residents of Kibera, an impoverished community near Nairobi, Kenya, by clubs in the United States and Kenya with a Foundation grant. The grant also brought safe drinking water to about 300,000 people.
- A project to help stamp out guinea worm in Ghana, undertaken by Rotary clubs in Ghana and supported by clubs in 13 countries, including Canada, Switzerland, and the United States, in partnership with the Carter Center. The clubs have also been active in providing water to remote communities.
- Rainwater harvesting systems to serve 120,000 people and their livestock in Rajasthan, a state in northern India. Through another project, in the Indian state of Maharashtra, crop yields have tripled as a result of rainwater harvesting.
- The installation of household water systems in the South Rift Valley in Kenya, enabling girls to focus on going to school and women to undertake economic activities rather than fetching water.
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