ROLL OUT THE BARREL

Today we welcomed Mukesh Malhotra to our Club Zoom meeting to speak about the Rotary Barrel.

The Roll out the Barrel Trust (ROTB) was founded in 2006 with the specific aim to stop women and children, especially small children, from carrying water, sometimes many miles in searing temperatures or through muddy fields. ROTB provide a simple economic solution by supplying a 30 litre Roll-Along barrel, which helps prevent problems associated with water collection including physical deformity and compressed organs faced by adults and young children in developing countries. They also mean water is collected in greater quantity (once instead of twice a day) allowing children to go to school and women to perform productive work. ROTB work with UNICEF, Rotary Clubs around the world, Aquabox, Life Straw, and other organisations.

Mukesh began his presentation with a video showing (mostly) women and young children collecting water in yellow boxes or jerry cans, which they then carry home. This is a daily occurrence in many parts of the world, and it is heart-breaking to see women and children having to walk 6/10 kilometres, once or twice a day, to collect water. A jerrycan full of water weighs around 30 kilos; children carry around 10 kilos. The picture shows a 9-year-old boy carrying 20 kilos for 2 kilometres. Mukesh asked “How many of you could do that?”

Water can be collected from standpipes, pumps, sand dams, streams, rivers, or holes in the ground, sometimes contaminated with chemicals and animal waste. Many of the containers used may be recycled from previous uses and may not have been cleaned. By working in partnership with Aquabox we can install community filter boxes.

ROTB’s rolling barrel is a good solution to this problem (many caravaners will be familiar with these barrels). It was decided that the optimum size of barrel should hold 30 litres of water. Larger barrels are available elsewhere, but they are almost impossible to push or pull.

Each barrel, manufactured and delivered, costs £30 (rising to £35 this year). They are manufactured in the UK for quality control reasons, but we are now looking to work with local manufacturers. Since 2012, 6,500 barrels have been delivered.

This project has improved the lives of women and children by taking the drudgery and constant risk out of water collection. It enables women to do other things, and children to attend school (especially girls).

The ambition is to have one million barrels available around the world.