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| The water barrel is empty at Falelima School, Savai’í, Samoa |
Past President Bruce Hancock, Rotary Club of St Johns, Auckland, NZ
My
Rotary Moment occurred during a trip to Samoa in May 2008. I was
invited there because of my Civil Engineering background, to assist the
Rotary Club of Auckland Harbourside (a club with which my Rotary Club of
St Johns has close ties, as both clubs are in District 9920) in scoping
a water supply project they were sponsoring.
The
village of Falelima situated on the island of Savai’í happens to be
located on a very porous layer of volcanic lava, so the natural
rainwater runoff, unlike in other villages on the island, soaks in above
the village and runs underground to the sea. The village therefore
relies on water collected from roof areas by gutters and connected
tanks.
The
problem was that much of the guttering in place was inadequate - there
was not enough of it to provide the required amount of water to tide
over the dry season, and many of the tanks were small and leaking. Also
many of the roofs were difficult to attach gutters to because of a lack
of facia boards. The villagers lacked the skills and resources to
improve the situation, so were forced to import expensive tanker
supplies each dry season.
The
trip I went on was the first to the village and had the objective of
scoping the work required, particularly at the village primary school
which has a large roof area and adequate facia boards, but lacked much
of the possible guttering and tank capacity required.
My
Rotary Moment occurred when I observed a young girl no more than 7 or 8
years-old come out of a toilet, turn on the tap at the hand basin, and
despite the fact that there was no water coming out, go through the
actions of washing her hands! I then suddenly realised what District
9920 was all about and the wisdom of Rotary as an organisation tying in
the Pacific Island countries with New Zealand districts.
On
a subsequent trip, Auckland Harbourside Rotary with some financial
assistance from other clubs, including my own, were able to complete
guttering on the school, provide additional tank capacity, repair the
existing leaking tanks and also improve other amenities at the same
time.
In
addition, guttering was added to the village church which had an
existing large tank and throughout the exercise the locals villagers
learnt to construct guttering and repair the other tanks in the village.
