Waterbox Update - May 2013

Rtn David Grant, Chairman of District 9400 Disaster Relief Committee recently asked for our help to alleviate the flooding disaster that has displaced tens of thousands of families in southern Mozambique. David is a member of the RC of Kayalami in Johannesburg, and his District covers the north east of South Africa, Swaziland, and the southern half of Mozambique. We were able to respond within 12 hours to which he commented 'This really is Rotary in Action!' Following confirmation that we could provide a supply of Water-Survival Boxes David travelled to Maputo (the capital city) where he met members of the three local Rotary Clubs, key members of the Mozambique Disaster Relief committee and the UN representative. The consignment of Water-Survival Boxes has arrived in Maputo, been cleared through customs ready for distribution. The Rotary Club of Polana in Maputo is taking the lead on behalf of Rotary and will be working in partnership with the Mozambican Government agency (INGC). As flood waters receded many of the displaced families are now able to return to their original areas where their traditional sources of potable water (wells and boreholes) were contaminated by the floodwaters.  The WSBs will be used to ensure a means of purifying water until the usual sources can be made safe.

We look forward to the visit of Rtn David Grant and his wife on 11 June, when we will be able to provide a detailed briefing on our Rotary Water-Survival Box project. We also hope to learn at first-hand how the distribution of WSBs in Mozambique was achieved albeit the transient nature of the displaced families, cultural and language differences all contributed to the complexity of the operation on this occasion.

DENMARK - NEWS

DGE Jan Brinck (District 1440) recently took delivery of two Demonstration Boxes for use in his and an adjoining District in Denmark. Last week Jan asked if we could supply boxes to two of the three other Danish districts and this will be arranged very shortly. These requests stemmed from our attendance at the Rotary Institute meeting in Sundsvall, Sweden last year
and we are delighted to learn that four of the five incoming Danish Rotary District Governors are planning to encourage their Clubs to consider supporting our Rotary project. We are also aware that all six Norwegian Districts and at least four of the Swedish Districts are promoting our project in the new Rotary Year.

MEETING OF ROTARY BOX ORGANISATIONS

Chairman PDG Tony Quinn represented the Water-Survival Box project at a meeting called by Rotary GB&I President John Minhinnick. There was a general consensus around the concept of mutual support and sharing of information which we hope can result in concrete proposals in due course.  We are also in dialogue with the manufacturers of new generation Aquafilter following an
earlier discussion at the Rotary GB&I Conference in Harrogate.

SARAID

Following on from the recently agreed Memorandum of Understanding to occasionally use SARAID volunteers to act for Worldwaterworks Limited in managing the in-country distribution operation a training event for some 15 SARAID  volunteers was held on 17 May. The briefing and training presentation generated a lively discussion and we look forward to developing
this link further in the next couple of years.

150TH ROYAL BATH AND WEST SHOW

During the past four days we have been 'on duty' at the Bath and West Show which this year celebrates its 150th anniversary. The Show organisers offered the Shepton Mallet Rotary Club a marquee to be used for Rotary purposes in appreciation for the 48 Rotary volunteers who were to provide a 'meet and greet' service manning all four entrances to the site over the four days. Our Rotary friends in Shepton (who have been great supporters of our Rotary project over the years) invited us to take up the offer which we saw as an ideal opportunity to show a wider audience one of our local Rotary projects that now has support from all Districts in Rotary GB&I and a growing number of Districts and Clubs in Northern Europe. We also took the opportunity to display information about the Polio Eradication project and materials for anyone interested in joining Rotary. Although we are not
expecting to see much tangible support for our project from this event it was an excellent opportunity to promote Rotary generally.