“AW, GIVE ME A BREAK! It’s been going since time immemorial! Why can’t it simply be fixed?!?”
If it only was that simple. Next time you turn on the tap to fill your kettle, spare a thought for your great-grandmother: Like mine, quite likely she would have collected water from the outside pump, the water tank or the local fountain. Ultimately, running water was installed in houses. It was a major “modern convenience". Clean water and all that goes with it is a condition for a healthy society because sanitation and hygiene are neigh impossible without clean water. (PLEASE, Henrietta, don’t get me started on wet wipes!). A healthy population is a condition for a prosperous society.
I’m very much playing in my fourth quarter (but I’m still getting the occasional uncontested kick, or at least catch and pass the ball ☺) and have been a Rotarian for some 37 years. The theme of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (Rotary’s monthly theme for March) has had numerous other iterations. Australian Rotary projects go back to the early 1960s, undertaking clean water projects in PNG, India, Thailand and Borneo.
In our District 9640, many clubs are active in this area. Just a couple of examples: in PDG Darrell Brown's newsletter (2017-18) I recall reporting on projects of the Rotary Club of Burleigh Heads (at Kimbe, PNG), and the combined clubs of Lismore, Stanthorpe, Palm Beach and Glen Innes (at a school in Fiji). Did it make a difference? You bet!
On the international scene, Surfers Sunrise has always been more active in providing mobility for disabled people through our wheelchair project. Occasional 'major 5 year projects' were the buildings, such as the recently completed X-Ray Unit for Pentecost Island, Vanuatu, or the ‘House of Hope’ in Apia, Samoa, (see last week’s bulletin). At present, there are no such projects on our horizon. So, could we consider a ‘Water, Sanitation and Hygiene’ project?
BTW, there is a dedicated international Rotary Action Group on this. Click on the image above.