On Thursday, Jan. 31, Richard Cromwell, Jen Clarke, and Lee Patenaude from the Bath Rotary Club gave a presentation about a really well planned and executed water project in Cambodia. What made this project work, when so many well-meaning efforts fail to deliver sustainable change in third world countries, were:

• The grass roots involvement and initiative of community members
• Using a holistic approach for a complex problem
• Starting with the kids and having them teach their parents and relatives
• Educating and training everyone to build and maintain their own safe, clean water systems and to observe proper hygiene

Richard Cromwell began by describing the orphanage he and other Rotarians had helped build in the village of Siem Reap in rural, northwest Cambodia. On several visits to this region, he and Jen Clarke had found over 26 orphaned children living in squalid conditions in a Mangrove forest. There were 13 boys sharing 2 beds. The kids went to the local public schools but they were usually too sick to study. They had so many diseases, such as Dengue Fever, Diarrhea, and sores--all attributable to contaminated water. Rich showed wonderful pictures and videos of the orphanage they helped to build between 2010 and 2013. The kids have clean rooms and clothes, clean, safe water. When the kids come home from school in the afternoon, they have art and music classes at the orphanage, as well as time to do their homework. Most recently, the kids asked for and received two new soccer fields. The soccer fields were a reward for the kids' active involvement in implementing better hygiene practices and teaching their peers about the importance of hygiene and clean water.

It was as a result of the orphanage project in Siem Reap that Richard became passionate about the difference that clean water and good sanitation practices can make to the health of the people in a community. He toured more of the region and realized that every one in this region was accustomed to defecating outdoors, there were very few latrines, and periodic monsoons and flooding spread the bacteria into all the wells and water sources that people were using to drink, bathe and wash their clothes and dishes. Rich began to imagine ending water insecurity, open defecation, attendant childhood diarrheal disease and lack of hygiene education. He began to look for a local partner and in 2014 he found a local non-profit: Water for Cambodia, which had been founded by a Rotarian from Middletown, Rhode Island in 2002 for just this purpose. The Bath Rotary Club raised $4,000 to fund a year-long Community Assessment Plan in five villages. In 2015, the Water for Cambodia team met with and got enthusiastic support from five community chiefs. They interviewed members of 75 households. They discovered that in these villages there were no drilled wells, no dug wells, no latrines for 116 families. After doing the community assessment and getting a lot of community members on board, they designed a grass roots project using a holistic approach:

• Build community acceptance and community spirit
• Implement school-based hygiene--start by educating and training the kids
• Have groups of families build shared wells
• Show families how to build their own latrines
• Show them how to build and use bio-sand filters
• Provide ongoing follow up education

Based on the strength of the assessment and the plan, the three-community pilot project was funded in 2017 by an anonymous donor. They called it "Getting Water Right 1." All of the assessments and documentation used in the project are available so that others can learn how to run similar projects.

At the local schools, Jen Clarke and the Water for Cambodia team had kids build hand washing stations. The children were praised for washing their hands when they came to school, before they ate and after they went to the bathroom. 50 children asked for, and were given hand washing kits to take home to build for their families. Jen also used a clever method to teach the kids about the spread of germs. She had several children dip their hands in liquid and then sprinkled glitter on their hands. Then, she asked them to shake hands with their neighbors. The glitter spread from hand to hand. The children could then easily visualize the spread of germs.

The 19 wells were built by groups of 15 families each using local materials-- they learned how to make cement rings and sink them into the ground and then they dug their own wells, adding rings as needed until they reached the desired depth. They learned how to use and maintain locally manufactured Rovei water pumps, solid, protective well covers, and to landscape around each well for proper drainage and run off. The water from each well was tested to be sure that it was readily treatable by filtering. 268 families requested and received bio-sand filters. Each family received training and orientation in the use of the filter as well as follow-up visits. The Water for Cambodia team continues to visit the schools and villages to test the water, answer questions and do follow up education and training. All of this was accomplished in 2018!