Grant received to provide water for 20 more villages in Ghana

The World Community Service Committee of the Rotary Club of Windsor (1918) recently received word that their application for a Global Grant was approved by Rotary International in the area of focus of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene.  Rotarians Dr. Godfrey Bacheyie and Ron Arkell are the leads on this project.

 

Historically, we have initiated successful projects in the Upper West for almost 25 years.  We have provided schools, school furniture and equipment and uniforms, a library, a sheltered workshop for post polio victims, support to a local orphanage and have provided the funds to secure in excess of 25 boreholes in surrounding communities.  We have also provided “Veronica buckets” at each school site to encourage regular hand washing.  These projects have been Club or donor sponsored.  Members of our Club and volunteers usually travel to Ghana at least once a year and most often twice a year to monitor projects and maintain relationships with local leaders.

 

Jirapa District is rural with 95% of the people living in the area being subsistence farmers.  Most of the villages do not have access to clean water with no sanitation facilities and during the rainy season waste (human and animal) contaminates the ditches and ponds which are the only current source of water.

 

As one of the “Centennial Legacy “projects, we completed a $110,000 water project for the town of Jirapa which is currently pumping 200,000 gallons of fresh water daily.

 

The current grant will focus on drilling boreholes in at least an additional 20 rural villages which presently have no access to potable/clean water.  This will provide easily accessible clean water in each village which will reduce the time needed to access any water as well as reducing incidences of water borne diseases and even death. 

 

 

As with most Rotary projects, we have this time partnered with District 6400, Rotary Endowed gift E10953, the World Fund, the Rotary Club of Toronto Eglinton and many generous donors to reach the total funding for this project at $102,933 US.

 

As Ron Arkell often says, “water is life” and we know that this grant will provide a much better life for the people of the Upper West Region of Ghana.