By Rotary-USAID partnership team
World Water Week, the leading annual global event addressing the planet’s major water challenges, will take place virtually 23-27 August with the theme Building Resilience Faster. For Rotary members passionate about water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), this is a great opportunity to connect with and learn from some of the world’s leading thinkers, innovators and decision-makers about the present challenges and innovative solutions to the world’s water crisis.
Rotary has recognized the importance of access to safe water and sanitation. WASH is the second largest area of investment of the Rotary Foundation: Since 2014, Rotary clubs have carried out over 2,100 WASH global grants with more than $154 million in Foundation funding. Rotary members have also done a far larger number of local WASH service projects, often with the support of the Water Sanitation and Hygiene Rotary Action Group.
However, there is still more work to be done– about 10 percent of the global population still lacks safe water and phenomena such as the pandemic and climate change pose risks to the progress that has been made. Rotary recognizes that it cannot tackle this urgent challenge alone. This is why Rotary’s largest partnership effort outside of polio is in WASH: over the last decade, Rotary has partnered with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to implement large-scale, sustainable WASH programs in the Dominican Republic, Philippines, Ghana and Uganda.
Information about the Rotary-USAID WASH partnership-which represents a total commitment of $18 million by both organizations and pairs the technical expertise of USAID development professionals with the leadership and influence of Rotary members in local communities-can be found online https://riusaidwash.rotary.org/. The site is a practical source of learnings and resources in WASH sustainability for Rotary members involved in ongoing or future WASH service projects. It is also a repository of stories rich in insights from members, partners and communities on the ground.
Are you interested in or currently planning a WASH project? Explore the resources available on the new site. Contact Rotary.USAID@rotary.org with questions about the site or the Rotary-USAID WASH partnership.
Service in Action 
Is this a webinar that we Rotarians can participate in?
It is not only in “third world countries” that there is a problem. Here in Canada our Indigenous people still are relying on potable water. Our Rotary District 7010 is supporting “Water First” to train Indigenous people to become certified in looking after and maintaining water purification systems and looking after sewage.
We still have the problem of rivers and lakes that are polluted with toxic materials like mercury from pulp and paper manufacturing that has damaged Indigenous people downstream with neurological disease.
Another problem is the increasing amount of salt from highways and parking lots into our drinking water.
The lack of water can also lead to strife, conventional war that could escalate to a nuclear war. With the Himalayan glaciers decreasing in size, the Indus river will decrease in flow. It travels first through India and then Pakistan, two nuclear countries. This is a risk. Another is the damming of the Nile that will affect Egypt.
The climate change is also causing droughts that is harming farming.