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Water for Life 24/7 Press Presentation

at Diana Garden Resort Saturday December 17th 5.00 pm.

Saturday December 17th was a very special day for Rotary Clubs in Pattaya as the joint clubs held their traditional Christmas Party, organized by Assistant Governor Bob Denzel of RCTaksin - Pattaya. The location was the Jaktheppiman room at the Diana Garden Resort and Driving Range, which started at 6.30 pm.

It was also a special day for Rotary Club Eastern Seaboard as they held a “Water for Life 24/7” press conference and presentation to celebrate the completion of the ” Matching Grant 74709 - Gravity Water Filters for Households Project” before the party in the Rotary room, Diana Garden Resort at 5.00 pm.

Since 2007 Rotary Club Eastern Seaboard, with the support of sponsors and Rotary Districts & Clubs in the Netherlands, Switzerland and Thailand has installed over 50 Clean Water systems at schools throughout North & Eastern Thailand, with a total value of over 3 million Thai Baht (100.000 US$).

In 2009 the “Water for Life 24/7” campaign was launched to combat waterborne diseases at a household level as per the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO). Water for Life 24/7 means providing clean drinking water to children and families 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.

For this purpose Rotary Club Eastern Seaboard, with major financial support from their International Partner Rotary District 2000 (Switzerland), has distributed 3500 gravity drip filters to not only poor families in the Isaan area but also to hill tribe villages in Mae Hong Son, Chiang Mai & Chiang Rai provinces, communities in the Burmese border area in Kanchanaburi province, the Cambodian border area in Chantaburi province and fishing villages in the mangrove forests in Chantaburi .

The motto of RC Eastern Seaboard is “Beyond Frontiers” and therefore we have also donated water filters to impoverished families in Pakse province, Laos and to an orphanage in Sihanoukville Cambodia.

The drip filters are fitted with a high quality Swiss Made Katadyn ceramic element, which is certified to filter out particles > 0.2 micron, including virtually all harmful bacteria. In comparison: the specifications of the best available ceramic elements in Thailand are only 0.3 micron -which is the standard set by Thai Health Departments. In addition the systems do not require electricity and as such are perfect to be used for disaster relief. Recently 300 systems were made available for immediate flood relief in the affected areas north of Bangkok.

The cost of these 3500 drip filters was 4.2 million Baht (140.000 US$), which may seem a lot of money but if you consider that they will provide more than 20.000 people with sufficient clean drinking water for a period of well over 5 years, the cost per liter is less than 0.03 Baht. Now compare that to the cost of a litre of bottled drinking water, which for the underprivileged is (relatively) as expensive as a litre of wine to most of us!

Together with many clubs in Thailand and international partners & sponsors, RCES intends to continue their “Water for Life 24/7” campaign, whereby a target of 5000 has been set for 2012.

All interested parties were welcome to the “Water for Life 24/7” presentation at the RC Eastern Seaboard meeting room at the Diana Garden Resort on Saturday December 17th at 5.00 pm

Here’s to Clean Water – Cheers!

President Carl R. Dyson , PP Stefan Ryser, PP Jan Abbink and the members of Rotary club Eastern Seaboard.

Water for Life 24/7 Press Release

the presentation of Rotary’s Prestigious award, a Paul Harris Pin

to the Rotarians whose efforts, generosity and the gift of their time, made this project possible.