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A Dam Good Project – Rotary Good News Week

A Dam Good Project – Rotary Good News Week

  Rotary’s participation in an extraordinary and life changing project continues to go from strength to strength, helping tens of thousands of the world’s poorest people. Rotary clubs across Great Britain and Ireland are supporting and collaborating with Excellent Development, a charity pioneering sand dams in rural communities in Kenya. The dams are built on […]

 

Rotary’s participation in an extraordinary and life changing project continues to go from strength to strength, helping tens of thousands of the world’s poorest people.

Rotary clubs across Great Britain and Ireland are supporting and collaborating with Excellent Development, a charity pioneering sand dams in rural communities in Kenya.

The dams are built on drylands, which take up 40% of the Earth’s land and are home to around 75% of the world’s poor.

Sand dams are three to five metre high reinforced concrete dams built on the bedrock of seasonal river channels. After the rainy season, they fill with sand and water for several hundred metres behind the dam, storing up to 20 million litres of water within the sand.

The sand filters out impurities, protects the water from contamination and prevents evaporation, providing a cost effective way of capturing and storing rainfall so that it is available all year round.

To date, over 200 Rotary clubs in Great Britain and Ireland have played a part in supporting the construction of over 40 sand dams across Kenya, with that number set to increase to just under 60 by the end of 2018. Upcoming projects expect to take Rotary’s contribution to close to £1 million, with plans to expand into new areas in the north of Kenya, as well as India.

James Onions, a member of the Rotary club of Kew Gardens, who has visited the sand dams in action commented: “The response of clubs and in Great Britain and Ireland to the lack of clean water for communities in Kenya has been tremendous, already surpassing an investment of over £700,000.”

All this work means that communities no longer have to spend up to half a day travelling to collect water which was sometimes contaminated.

James continued: “When launched it was suggested that Rotary would be able to deliver clean water at £10 per person for life and currently we are delivering water at below that cost to well over 70,000 people.”

Find out more about Rotary’s international service in Rotary magazine.

Published: Tuesday 13th September 2016

Photograph © Polly Braden

 

This week is the second Rotary Good News Week. Over the next five days, we’ll be celebrating five special stories from Rotary clubs and members from across Great Britain and Ireland.

To follow Rotary Good News Week, keep your eye on our Facebook and Twitter pages and use the hashtag #RotaryGoodNewsWeek to share your stories.

Read our other Good News Stories from this week below:

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