Water Is Life
AUG. 3, 2010 – Rotarians Bill Nettles and Dyson Scott gave a fascinating overview of an April trip to Peru to install water purification machines as part of the club’s international service.
Our club, along with the Rotary Club of Daniel Island, funded machines installed over four days in the area of Iquitos, Peru, which is in the northern part of the country along the Amazon River. Attending from our club were former president Mark Smith, Nettles and Scott, along with representatives of the Daniel Island club.
“This was a huge success with this trip,” president Brian Johnson said introducing the teammates.
The machines, designed and deployed by Water Missions International of Charleston (our club’s international partner), are now among more than 700 that have been installed in 40 countries across the world, Nettles said. Since the first machines were created in 1998, Water Missions International has helped more than 1 million people globally get access to clean water. But more than a billion people don’t have clean water, Nettles added. An estimated 25,000 people die daily from water-related problems.
Nettles described how the U.S. team installed water purification machines in villages around Iquitos. In one place, they installed a pump on a floating raft that could be moved to access water as the river ebbed up to 40 feet between rainy and dry seasons. One picture shown during the team’s slide show showed yellow-brown water that people routinely drank and used, compared to clear water that came from a machine.
“People were lining up to get water,” Nettles noted. “They would come out in droves and were just so thankful.” He added that team members often had to take the first drink of clean water from a machine to show that it was good and they “wouldn’t die.”
Scott said the trip was not your normal vacation.
“It was an incredible opportunity for all of us,” he said.
He described a trip that team members took about 3.5 hours upstream from Iquitos where the Amazon was up to 12 miles wide in some places. A lodge featured thatched-roof huts in the middle of the jungle. Grand water lilies measured 8 feet across. Sunsets were magnificent.
“The flowers, birds and wildlife are unbelievably beautiful. It’s phenomenal how friendly and kind the people were.”
Johnson said another trip to install a machine is planned for the current Rotary year.
Submitted by Andy Brack, Keyway Committee