Every day is World Water Day for the WASH Rotary Action Group
Students use new toilet facilities provided by a RI-USAID WASH project at Ndoddo Church of Uganda Primary School. 19 November 2021. Ndoddo, Gomba district, Uganda.
The WASH Rotary Action Group (WASH-RAG) supports and ensures sustainable, long-lasting, clean water, sanitation, and hygiene programs to communities in need. In 2007, WASH-RAG was formed to help local Rotary and Rotaract clubs find international projects and global partners, ensuring sustainability by providing technical advice through WASH-RAG’s in-house Professional Resources team, and offering additional funding for WASH project proposals approved for Global Grant funding from The Rotary Foundation. Special teams are assigned to help prepare grant applications, conduct community assessments, and develop plans to monitor and evaluate WASH projects.
Additionally, WASH-RAG Ambassadors serve as WASH champions in Rotary districts across the globe. They offer their technical expertise and support to help clubs plan and implement impactful projects. Anyone who wants to share their expertise or learn how to make a positive difference can join!
WASH-RAG encourages a holistic, integrated approach in which water is not the end in itself but is the means to a better life and livelihood in the community. Therefore, the WASH Rotary Action Group links water and sanitation to improved hygiene, health, empowerment of the community (especially of women), irrigation and agriculture, education and literacy and, ultimately, reduction of child mortality.
Since 2014, the Rotary Foundation has invested in over 2,000 water, sanitation, and hygiene projects. It is estimated that it only takes US$24 to provide one person with safe water.
Rotarian Mark Balla Shares His Story
Recently, Mark (a presenter at WWS7 in Sao Paulo in May 2015) presented at TEDx, New Zealand. In the talk you will hear about his organization and their first project in India completed very recently. This project is to build 15 toilets in a school of 500 kids. The Rotary Club of Box Hill Central in Australia (district 9810) and the Rotary Club of Nasik Road in India (district 3030) were partners.
They are now developing a more ambitious project, this time involving seven or eight schools and as many as 5000 children. Beyond that, over the next few years they intend to reach tens of thousands of children. Listen to the TEDx talk or visit the facebook page to learn more!
Stats on Sanitation Failures
Improve International maintains an ongoing compilation of statistics on failures in sanitation. Although these statistics are discouraging, it is important to be aware of the challenges and pitfalls in sanitation work. Open Defecation Free (ODF) status is difficult to maintain and presents a challenge that Rotary Clubs may be uniquely positioned to help with – ongoing relationships with recipients and regular monitoring and evaluation visits. Living near a community with a vested interest in development of the region makes Rotarians a perfect choice in helping sustain programs. Read Stats…
Stockholm International Water Institute, August 2015:
“SIWI” has become the world’s most important water meeting. This years conference attracted over 3,000 of the world’s most influential “water” people. Executive Director Torgny Holmgren set the scene as follows: “Before this year is over, some big decisions need to be made. In September UN member states will decide on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to steer global development efforts in the decades to come, and in December, at COP21 in Paris, a new climate deal will hopefully be agreed. One of the SDGs will most likely be dedicated to water, and it is essential that we work for an efficient implementation of that goal. In the climate negotiations, we believe that water needs to be at the centre of the discussions, since climate change mainly manifests through water, too much or too little of it.”