The Rotary's Water-Survival Box project at Westfield Trading Estate has this week sprung into action following Saturday's devastating earthquake in Nepal. As The Journal went to press, the death toll had passed 5,000, with an estimated eight million people affected. Before the disaster occurred, the President of Rotary International in Britain and Ireland, Rotarian Peter King, paid an official visit to Worldwaterworks Limited, home of the project, last Friday.
Over the weekend, the team have been busy working on getting boxes together for the effort in Nepal. They plan to send 500 Water-Survival boxes for distribution by Humanity First UK, the same agency with which World-waterworks were able to send boxes to the survivors of the typhoon in the Philippines at the end of 2013.
Talking about aid for the survivors in Kathmandu, Hugo Pike, from the Rotary Club of Chelwood Bridge, said: "We are urgently seeking donations to help us replace the boxes sent out and if needed, to send a further consignment over the next couple of weeks. Donations can be made online via our website: http://www.worldwaterworks.org">www.worldwaterworks.org or sent to Worldwaterworks Ltd, Westfield Business Centre, 32A Second Avenue, Westfield Trading Estate, BA3 4BH."
The Water-Survival Box project arose from the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean and contains a water purification pack to provide clean drinking water and a range of essential survival items. These include utensils for feeding and drinking, health and hygiene items, basic shelter and simple tools and various household items. All the contents are newly purchased and the preferred method of delivery is by air freight, so that the boxes can be distributed to the survivors of disaster within days rather than the weeks or months taken before.
Worldwaterworks Limited is managed by seven senior members of the Rotary Club of Chelwood Bridge, who are also trustees of the registered charity. Since 2008, the Water-Survival Box project has been one of the 'Opportunities to Serve' approved for all Rotary Clubs throughout Britain and Ireland.
Since 2006, a total of 9,985 WSBs have been sent in response to 41 disasters in 25 countries across the world and helped protect some 100,000 people from waterborne disease. In November and December 2013, a total of 800 boxes were sent to the Central Philippines following the devastation caused by super typhoon Haiyan and recently, 200 boxes arrived in Chile for families displaced by mudslides and floods affecting two provinces in the north of the country. The consignment sent to Chile also included 240 'School in a Bag' haversacks, provided by the Somerset-based charity, the Piers Simon Appeal. The SIABs contain a range of basic learning materials designed to enable displaced children to quickly resume their education where, as in Chile, school buildings have been destroyed and their contents lost.
Peter King's visit last Friday coincided with a packing session involving trustees of the registered charity and other members of the Rotary Club of Chelwood Bridge.
Mr King is one of the founders of the Rotary Club of Kew Gardens, in London. He has practised as a barrister for the past thirty years, specialising in crime and common law, and is a part-time provincial stipendiary magistrate and special immigration adjudicator and currently a judge of the Upper Tribunal, specialising in immigration, asylum and human rights.
The President was accompanied by District Governor, Judy Barnard-Jones (from the Rotary Club of Dorchester Casterbridge), within whose district the Rotary of Chelwood Bridge are based.