World Water Day ( March 22) is approaching quickly. What is your club doing to educate your community on the importance of protecting its water source? You can clean up debris on a waterway, encourage students to write an essay on water, promote the recycling of plastics so they do not get into rivers, ... there are so many opportunities.

 

Summarize your project in a brief description and send to [email protected] before May 1, 2018 and you may win a $500 prize for Best Project or Most Innovative Project. .

The Rotary Club of Lins, in Brazil, District 4460, partnered with the Rotary Club of Flower Mound, in Texas, District 5790, and obtained a Rotary Foundation Global Grant to construct 69 septic tanks for 75 families living in rural Lins.  

 

This proper management of water will provide humans and animals with safer water to drink, and allow irrigation of fruits and vegetables to be done with water free of contagious contamination. 

 

This project has helped the state government to see the advantages to the rural economy and the health of rural people, so is placing an emphasis on rural sanitation systems.

About 23% of Mexicans ( approximately 27 million people) live in small rural communities of 2,500 people or less. In these rural villages clean water and sanitation is lacking.

District 4170, under the guidance of Marcos Calvert, WASRAG Ambassador, has been working since 2014 with the WASH/Future Vision Committee, on an ambitious goal to bring WASH projects to whole communities in cooperation with local municipal and state governments. 

In recent decades, there has been an epidemic of chronic kidney  disease (CKD) in the rice growing provinces of Sri Lanka. This has been traced to agricultural fertilizers and

pesticides that unwittingly polluted reservoirs, irrigation canals and ground water that  fills the community wells that supply drinking water.

 

Eight Rotary Clubs in NW Ohio worked with the host Colombo Sri Lanka Club to obtain a Global Grant from The Rotary Foundation, to build reverse osmosis systems. The systems are 

now providing clean water in seven rice-farming Sri Lankan 

villages affected by CKD. Each water plant serves about 

1,400 people. Funding is sufficient for building five more such plants in the next several months. 

 

To learn more read   life-saving water project 

WASRAG has assembled a group of professionals to assist Rotary Clubs with their WASH projects. The team have experience in needs assessment, planning, grant preparation, implementation and WASH training.

 

Members of the Professional Resources Team are from many countries, experienced in working in developing countries and are fluent in a number of languages.

 

If you need help with a project send an email to: [email protected].  For more details visit

http://wasrag.org/page/resources-team

In 2014 the German-based NGO WASH United initiated May 28 as a global awareness day to help break the silence and build awareness about the role that good menstrual hygiene management plays in enabling women and girls to reach their full potential.

To learn more about this day and to obtain some excellent resources visit.  http://menstrualhygieneday.org/

The WASRAG Board has established a WASRAG Fund to encourage Rotary clubs to undertake water and sanitation projects that are sustainable and well designed. 

Before a Club submits their Global Grant application to The Rotary Foundation they should send it to the WASRAG Fund review board at [email protected]. WASRAG experts in water and sanitation programs will review the application and make suggestions to improve the quality of the project. Once the suggestions are incorporated into the final application, WASRAG will contribute $500 towards the project. 

The world is fortunate to have Rotary Clubs like Box Hill Central, District 9810, in Australia that are so committed to giving every child the right to an education by providing clean water and sanitation to schools.

The "We Can't Wait" NGO that was established by Mark Balla, with the support of the Box Hill Central club has agreed to support any WASH in Schools (WinS) project with $500 if it is approved by the WASRAG Fund review committee. 

That is $1,000 towards your water, sanitation and hygiene project in schools. Get planning.  

Send your Global Grant application to [email protected] to apply for both WASRAG Fund and We Can't Wait grants. 

Last year, the Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation (CAWST) ran a very successful World Water Day awareness campaign called "Paint it Blue".

This year they will be making Canadian landmarks blue from Coast to Coast to shine a spotlight on world water issues. See what they are doing by going to Paint it Blue

Learn what Rotarians can do to help the thousands of hospitals and health care facilities that lack safe water and sanitation. President Elect Barry Rassin, a Hospital Administrator himself, will share how Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) projects impact the health of millions of people.

The full day program, that precedes the Rotary International Conference, will include round table discussions on current topics, panel discussions and break-out sessions.

The WASRAG member rate of $175, includes a light breakfast and full lunch. The program is being held at Toronto's Delta Hotel on Friday, June 22, 2018. Register Here