Access to clean drinking water in Africa is a critical issue. Waterborne bacteria and diseases are the number one killer in Tanzania. Currently village women make a 2 hour round trip walk to a dirty stream to fetch water in buckets. Recognizing the need for clean water and knowing that Rotary International is keenly interested in providing clean water, the Rotary Club of Fredericksburg initiated a project to provide water catchment tanks for the small village of Katoma, Tanzania.
Rotarian Max Webel of the Rotary Club of Fredericksburg was made aware of this need from the local Catholic priest who he had met a few years ago. The Catholic church was built with a large area butterfly design roof to maximize water catchment. The problem was that there was no money to build tanks to catch the runoff, and no money for a filtration system.
The Rotary Club of Fredericksburg reached out to the Fredericksburg Morning Rotary Club, the Nimitz Rotary Club as well as other clubs in District 5840. A table was set up at the District Conference, and the Canyon Lake Rotary Club and the New Braunfels Rotary Club pledged their financial support. The project cost was projected to be $29,000, and it has been fully funded with the support of the above-mentioned clubs, individual members and a matching grant of $12,500 from District 5840. We are working with the Rotary Club of Bukoba which is located in a larger town near Katoma.
The project consists of a 100 cubic meter tank, a 46 cubic meter tank and a filtration system. The project was designed by a local engineering firm from the neighboring town of Bukoba. It will be built with local labor. It will provide clean drinking water for 800-900 villagers in the village of 6,700 residents. It is the hope of the Club to add more tanks in the future.
The Rotary Club of Bukoba is no stranger to water catchment projects. In 2016 it partnered with the Lake Tahoe-Incline Club of Nevada with a Rotary Foundation Global Grant and built a large water catchment facility near Lake Victoria. In discussing the project with the International Projects Chairman of the Lake Tahoe-Incline Club, he said that the project went very smoothly, and the final construction costs were under budget. We are working with the same engineering and construction firms used in the earlier project.
We are pleased to report that the first installment has been wired to the Bukoba Rotary Club, and the site preparation has begun. The project is scheduled to be completed by December. We are most appreciative of our partner clubs and District 5840 for making the funding possible.