DIDSBURY – A village in Africa with 2,000 people now has easy water access thanks to the fundraising efforts of a number of Didsburians.
Project Roret was started in 2012 by local resident Cathy Jackson and other volunteers from Chinook Winds Christian Centre (which later became Venue Church) as a way to raise money to bring a well to the town of Roret on the outskirts of Nakura, Kenya.
“The town had around 5,000 people living there and had no access to clean drinking water,” said Jackson.
“The nearest water source was a five-kilometre walk to a dirty river.” The group ran fashion show fundraisers for three straight Novembers (2012, 2013 and 2014) in conjunction with Fashions on Main.
They also had a couple of community garage sales and a fall fair fundraiser in 2012.
Jackson said a portion of the proceeds were used to purchase and install a large cistern, which the townspeople could use temporarily until a well was built.
“After three years we had enough funds to drill the well and began to proceed to make the necessary drilling company contacts and started the permitting process,” she said.
Unfortunately, the group ran into corruption in the village and with government officials in Nakura, she said.
“As they had the power to delay or deny these permits, it became apparent that the project would not go forward as we had planned,” she said.
“Our hearts were broken after developing relationships with the villagers over many years.” Jackson said that when it became apparent they couldn’t help Roret they decided to find another community.

House Democratic floor leader Christine Greig, of Farmington Hills, speaks while other House Democrats look on during a news conference, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in the state Capitol in Lansing, Mich. Democrats accuse majority Republicans of "inaction" on the contamination of tap water with old industrial chemicals, a charge the GOP denies.
(AP Photo/David Eggert) The Associated Press LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday accused majority Republicans of "inaction" on the contamination of tap water with old industrial chemicals, demanding that hearings be held to strengthen Michigan’s standard and to study why an internal state report that warned of dangers was ignored.
The renewed calls came a day before the GOP-led Legislature was to return to session after a summer break during which residents in the city of Parchment and Cooper Township in Kalamazoo County were told not to drink their municipal water for a month due to high levels of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.
The industrial compounds — which were used in products like firefighting foam and carpets — also have been found in at least 34 other sites in 19 communities .
Rep. Winnie Brinks, a Grand Rapids Democrat, said at a Capitol news conference that the state does not have an enforceable PFAS limit established in law, and the combined standard of 70 parts per trillion — set by Gov.
"This cap would be the lowest in the country and would ensure that the water coming out of Michiganders’ taps is worth of being called pure," said Brinks, who introduced legislation in December to lower the PFAS standard.
"Access to clean, safe drinking water is a fundamental right."
A response team created by the Republican governor last year is reviewing the science and may make a recommendation on the PFAS standard.
Asked why no hearings have been held, spokesman for GOP House Speaker Tom Leonard said Republicans "are focused on getting the state’s emergency response up and running first."
"The state is still working on testing water systems statewide and finding affected communities, and the Legislature’s focus needs to remain on this emergency testing and response until experts can determine the extent of the problem," D’Assandro said in a statement.

A community that has been living with a water boil advisory for seven years is celebrating the start of construction on a water treatment plant.
For years the Kehewin Cree Nation has been living off of boiled water from Kehewin Lake, and a long-awaited water treatment plant is finally in the works.
Construction is scheduled to kick-off in a couple of weeks, after a sod turning ceremony was held on Monday, Aug. 27 to mark the occasion.
“The sod turning meant a great deal after waiting how many years to start receiving clean water.” While the expected completion isn’t until 2020, Vanguard hopes the plant will be up and running sometime next year.
A point that shows others, that if you move beyond negativity, begin to work together as treaty partners, and place personal agendas to the side, great things can be achieved,” expressed Vanguard during her speech at the sod turning event.
She continued, “Now, we can say that we have access to clean water.
“I asked myself ‘why?’ We have our own water.
Kehewin Lake is there, why not use that?
The Minster of Indigenous Services Jane Philpott said in a release, “It gives me great pleasure to congratulate Chief Vanguard, and the entire Kehewin Cree First Nation community on the sod turning of their new water treatment system.
This milestone reflects our shared commitment to building critical infrastructure, and improving access to safe and reliable drinking water for the First Nation communities across the country.”

The renewed calls came a day before the GOP-led Legislature was to return to session after a summer break during which residents in the city of Parchment and Cooper Township in Kalamazoo County were told not to drink their municipal water for a month due to high levels of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.
Rep. Winnie Brinks, a Grand Rapids Democrat, said at a Capitol news conference that the state does not have an enforceable PFAS limit established in law, and the combined standard of 70 parts per trillion — set by Gov.
Rick Snyder’s administration in January and which mirrors a federal advisory level set in 2016 — should be 5 parts per trillion.
"This cap would be the lowest in the country and would ensure that the water coming out of Michiganders’ taps is worth of being called pure," said Brinks, who introduced legislation in December to lower the PFAS standard.
A response team created by the Republican governor last year is reviewing the science and may make a recommendation on the PFAS standard.
Asked why no hearings have been held, spokesman for GOP House Speaker Tom Leonard said Republicans "are focused on getting the state’s emergency response up and running first."
Gideon D’Assandro said lawmakers have allocated more than $60 million for lab equipment, initial cleanup, health care and getting boots on the ground in affected communities.
"The state is still working on testing water systems statewide and finding affected communities, and the Legislature’s focus needs to remain on this emergency testing and response until experts can determine the extent of the problem," D’Assandro said in a statement.
Snyder — who is pushing a fee increase to in part help clean up PFAS sites — said last week that the reason Michigan is finding the man-made chemicals is because it is proactively testing for them unlike in other states, after learning lessons from the Flint water crisis.
His work can be found at https://apnews.com/search/David%20Eggert

According to Siskiyou County OES, the declaration was made too soon.
The post was deleted at about 3:30 p.m. Water from Hornbrook’s municipal water systems remains unsafe to drink without boiling first, despite what the post said.
The following article has been modified from a previous version to reflect the new information: ————————————- HORNBROOK, Calif. – Nearly two months after the Klamathon Fire devastated the community of Hornbrook, officials hope residents will have access to clean municipal drinking water soon.
The Klamathon Fire started on July 5 and destroyed 82 structures and damaged 12 more in Siskiyou County.
Three people were injured and one killed before the fire was finally contained.
It covered 38,008 acres.
Nearly two months after the fire started, residents still cannot safely consume tap water.
A letter attributed to the Hornbrook Community Service District was posted by the Siskiyou County Office of Emergency Services declaring it’s no longer necessary for residents to boil tap water prior to drinking it.
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It’s officially back-to-school season but an estimated 47,000 students in Detroit will be forced to begin school without access to their school’s drinking water after Detroit’s Public School District tested the drinking water of 24 schools and found that 16 had high levels of copper and lead.
This discovery caused officials to shut off the drinking water in 106 public schools in the district while they can test the remaining schools’ drinking water supply.
In a statement, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti explained that this does not mean that all the schools have contaminated water.
Rather, to ensure the safety of the students, the district has decided to play it safe for now until they are certain water is safe for kids to drink.
“Although we have no evidence that there are elevated levels of copper or lead in our other schools where we are awaiting test results,” Vitti said.
“[O]ut of an abundance of caution and concern for the safety of our students and employees, I am turning off all drinking water in our schools until a deeper and broader analysis can be conducted to determine the long-term solutions for all schools.” Water with high levels of lead or copper can pose a serious health risk for whoever drinks it, including nausea, vomiting, stomach cramps, and diarrhea.
Fortunately, for now, there does not seem to be any evidence that Detroit’s water system has been contaminated by copper or lead, as the World Health Organization reports that lead poisoning is “particularly harmful to young children,” as it can cause “developmental and behavioral delays in children.” So how is the district planning to provide drinking water for students while it figures out the extent of the problem?
For now, bottled water seems to be the answer, as Vitti told the Associated Press that the district is planning to spend $200,000 on water bottles and coolers for the next two months.
After that, if necessary, the district will likely seek out bids for a long-term contract.

It is the latest setback in the state of Michigan which is already dealing with the consequences of contaminated tap water in Flint and other communities.
With the taps turned off, Detroit students and staff will be relying on bottled water that will cost about US$200,000 over two months, after which the district will probably seek bids for a longer-term contract, said Detroit Public Schools Superintendent Nikolai Vitti.
“There has been an undertone of not trusting the water to begin with,” Mr Vitti told The Associated Press.
The old plumbing and water infrastructure is decaying, becoming dangerous and local cash-strapped governments are struggling to find a solution.
Detroit is not the first major school district to switch to bottled water.
We give tax cuts to the rich that explode the deficit & in Detroit we have kids in schools with no water.
We are becoming a third world country.
She is far from the only one to make the third world comparison.
Source:AP In Flint, Michigan, residents have been dealing with the issue of toxic water for more than four years.
“But when lead, a poison to the nervous system, gets into drinking water — as happened in Flint, Michigan — the heavy metal can cause irreparable harm.” In the US, only eight states require lead-in-water testing in schools and Michigan is not among them.

WASHINGTON: Nearly half the world’s schools lack clean drinking water, toilets and handwashing facilities, putting millions of children at risk of disease, experts warned on Monday.
Almost 900 million children have to contend with a lack of basic hygiene facilities during their education, putting their health at risk and meaning some have to miss school.
“You can’t have a quality learning environment without these basics,” said Dr Rick Johnston of the World Health Organization, a lead researcher on the project.
“Children may not come to school at all if there’s no toilets … Then, when they are at school, they are not going to at their very best if they not able to use a decent toilet or if they are not properly hydrated.” World leaders have signed up to global pledges to provide safe water and hygiene facilities for all and ensure every child gets a comprehensive education by 2030 under the UN’s sustainable development goals.
It found nearly a third of primary and secondary schools lacked a safe and reliable drinking water supply, affecting nearly 570 million children.
Nearly 20 per cent of schools had no safe drinking water at all.
Just over a third of schools lacked adequate toilet facilities, affecting more than 620 million children.
Sub-Saharan Africa, East and Southeast Asia had some of the worst facilities.
“It’s deeply shocking,” Tim Wainwright, the chief executive of charity WaterAid, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
More than a third of girls in South Asia miss school during their periods, often because they lack access to toilets or pads, according to a WaterAid and UNICEF study earlier this year.

Deprived of basic facilities, people across the suburbs of Balochistan’s Dera Bugti district cannot remember when they last had access to clean drinking water.
Facing the worst shortage in over two decades while the authorities concerned bat no eye, residents of Habib Rani and Pattokh have been dependent on rivulets and puddles of muddy water for daily use.
In a video making rounds over the internet, the locals of the area can be seen fighting as they struggle to collect water from what appears to be a fresh water source.
Speaking to Pakistan Today, one of the protesters said that their representatives had failed them.
He also said that as many as five gas fields were operating in Dera Bugti, but locals, including him, neither had gas, water or electricity.
Azam also complained of lack of hospitals and schools in the area.
Inevitably, generations of families across the suburbs of the country’s largest province by area have been affected by water-borne diseases like diarrhoea, cholera and more.
It merits mention that in Balochistan, annual precipitation ranges from 50 to 500mm.
Locals have to walk miles to fetch one container of water to meet their daily needs.
He also expressed the hope that by nurturing relations with the federal government, the long-lasting issues of Balochistan could finally be resolved.

NOT a day goes by that our activities do not require water.
According to Water.org, out of over one hundred million Filipinos, nine million rely on unimproved, unsafe and unsustainable water sources and 19 million lack access to improved sanitation.
Shaping lives one glass at a time To address the pressing problem of access to clean water sector, Unilever Philippines made a commitment to provide safe drinking water to five million Filipinos by 2020 through the distribution of their Pureit water purifying systems.
More than their own hard work and dedication to such an advocacy, what truly drove Pureit’s success was the collaboration between Unilever and their microfinance partners.
These are financial products and services, such as deposits, loans, and payment services, that are offered by MFIs to the working class with small businesses, also known as the entrepreneurial poor.
According to the 2017 Financial Inclusion Study, out of the 23 percent Filipinos with a formal account, 8.1 percent of them are clients of microfinance organizations.
Because of their wide-reaching services and the relationships they have established with the communities they operate in, MFIs are the perfect partner for Unilever’s cause and the distribution of Pureit units.
One of the partner MFIs located there, KFI Center for Community Development Foundation (KCCDFI) of Zamboanga del Sur, is led by Mercy Faustino who first learned about Pureit in 2017.
Upon witnessing the suffering of residents from far-flung barangays who could only rely on wells, springs, and rivers as their water source, Faustino and her organization realized how much it would mean to bring water access to areas that lack water systems.
Faustino reported that majority of their clients were mothers whose lives had been changed because of the water security and convenience that Pureit has brought.