Rotary Club working for global good
<p>Sandra walks down the steep path to the stagnant river several times a day. She fills a small tub with water, fits it on her head and begins to climb the hill, slippery with mist from the river, to bring the water to her home. Because she can only carry a small quantity of water at a time, she must make this trip several more times today to provide enough water for her children.</p>
Guest Commentary:
Sandra walks down the steep path to the stagnant river several times a day. She fills a small tub with water, fits it on her head and begins to climb the hill, slippery with mist from the river, to bring the water to her home. Because she can only carry a small quantity of water at a time, she must make this trip several more times today to provide enough water for her children.
Water brings life but it also brings death. Because this is the dry season, the water in the river is stagnant and can harbor diseases. Insects lay eggs in the water which can sicken her children. They complain of fever and stomach problems. Children can die from water borne diseases.
Members of the Rotary Club of Kootenai Valley visited her village in El Progreso, Guatemala, to explore the feasibility of digging a well to provide the residents with clean water, uncontaminated by animals, air borne diseases and insect larvae.
The problems are many, the cost of drilling, the cost of electricity to run the motor, maintenance of the equipment after the well is established.
Besides this project, the Rotary Club also explored another two sites. One called Xibalquip has an established system but because the population has grown, there is a problem with storing the water. Here because the village is in the mountains, the water comes from a spring and then runs downhill into the tank. There is no need for electricity to run a motor. There is sufficient pressure to provide water for the population but the tank is not large enough to hold the water flowing in and therefore there is not enough for the people to use. With a larger tank, water can be more reliably provided.
A similar problem exists in Pasac, which also needs new pipes coming from the spring because they are not big enough to carry all the water. There is a coffee cooperative which exports coffee to the United States and to Europe and needs to show they are using clean water to wash the beans before being exported.
The members of the Rotary Club who checked out the three projects were George and Linda Gerard, Eileen Carney and Mick Shea. Lorna Sea also accompanied the group. The plan now will be to raise the money to pay for these projects, to get reliable projections of the costs and to decide how to develop the projects. All this information will be sent to the Rotary Foundation which will decide whether or not to provide the money the club lacks to carry out the plans.
Water is the new petroleum. The world will see great scarcity in the years to come and we need to make sure that this precious commodity is provided to all and not just the top few people in the world.
— Eileen Carney is a member of the Rotary Club of the Kootenai Valley