Experts from the Water & Sanitation Rotarian Action Group share strategies for partnering with businesses to help secure resources to help you plan and implement sustainable WASH projects. View the recording at https://vimeo.com/111018742
World Water e-Summit (Part 3): working with the private sector on Rotary Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene projects
1. T((PART 3): WATER, PAITRTL SANITATION, E WORKING WITH THE PRIVATE SECTOR ON ROTARY
AND HYGIENE PROJECTS
World Water e-Summit
Rotary & Wasrag
5 November 2014
2. Welcome to the webinar
Robert (Bob) Wubbena, PE
Immediate Past Vice Chair of Wasrag
Past Club President of Rotary Club of Olympia,
WA, USA
4. Agenda
• Water & Sanitation Rotarian Action Group
• Jim Imrie
• David Angas
• Gwenn Van
Schalkwyk
• Q/A
5. Meet our panelists
Jim Imrie
General Manager of Lifecycle
Services
GE Water & Process Technologies
David Angas
Past Rotary Club President
Rotary Club of Oakville-West,
Ontario, Canada
Gwenn Van Schalkwyk
Executive Secretary
Letaba Rotary Club, Limpopo,
South Africa
6. Water & Sanitation Rotarian Action Group | WHO?
• A group of technical experts who assist clubs
and districts with water, sanitation, and
hygiene projects
– Rainwater harvest, toilets and sanitation systems,
wells and boreholes, dams and aquifers, sand filters,
entrepreneurship, building capacity and partnerships
• 1650+ members
• Global: 92 countries, 320 Rotary districts
• Membership is open to Rotarians, family
members of Rotarians, Rotary program
participants and alumni
11. Water for Humanity | Zenon/GE Partnership
• Water for Humanity
project model
• Previous experience:
importance of local
reputable partner
• Partnership with RC
Oakville, ON, Canada
• Rotary partnership:
reputable organization,
local community
ownership, sustainability
12. Water for Humanity | Local Rotary partnership
• Partnership with Greater
Tzaneen Municipality
• Partnership with shipping
company
• Rotarian connections with
technical experts
• Project outcomes
13. Water and Sanitation Rotarian Action Group
• Become a Wasrag member! Lack of WASH is an affront
to humanity. Help the Rotary family help others.
• Join us to combat this global crisis.
www.wasrag.org
14. Wasrag’s World Water Summit VII | São Paulo, Brazil
Wasrag’s World Water Summit VII
Thursday 4 June 2015
São Paulo
Topic: WASH in Schools.
Registration will open by end of October; visit www.wasrag.org.
15. Thank you!
Register for upcoming webinars and
access recordings of past webinars at
www.rotary.org/webinars
Editor's Notes
[BOB]
Welcome to today’s webinar ‘Part 3 of the World Water e-Summit, Working with the private sector on Rotary water, sanitation, and hygiene projects’
[BOB]
My name is Bob Wubbena and I am a member of the Rotary Club of Olympia, Washington, USA. I am also immediate past vice chair of the Water & Sanitation Rotarian Action Group, and I will be moderating today’s session.
A little about me: I am an Environmental Engineer with over 46 years of professional water, waste water and water resources planning, design, and operational management experience. My wife and I are now retired and we travel extensively throughout the world while continuing to support Wasrag and The Rotary Foundation funded water projects.
For the next 60 minutes we will discuss how the Rotary family can partner with non-governmental organizations on water, sanitation, and hygiene, commonly known as WASH, projects.
If you missed part one of this series about working with governments on WASH, you’ll receive an email with a link to a recording of the first and second webinars shortly following this presentation.
[BOB]
This digital water summit, hosted jointly by Rotary and Wasrag, will share lessons learned at the May 2014 World Water Summit in Sydney, Australia, which focused on collaborating across sectors to plan and implement sustainable Rotary water projects. We would like to take a moment to thank our World Water Summit sponsors listed here, without who this initiative would not be possible.
[BOB]
In the next 60 minutes, I’ll give you a brief introduction to Wasrag for those of you who missed the first webinar or may not be familiar with the Rotarian Action Group. Then, we’ll be joined by two panelists who both have a wealth of knowledge and expertise on partnering with non-government affiliated groups on small and large Rotary water projects. After we hear from our two panelists, we will have about 20 minutes at the end of the presentation for our panelists to address your questions.
[BOB]
Now I am delighted to introduce our panelists: Jim Imrie, David Angas, and Gwenn Van Schalkwyk.
Jim is the General Manager for GE Water & Process Technologies Equipment Services Product Line, responsible for the growth and overall offerings of this segment. Jim has been with General Electric/Zenon for almost 29 years and spent his career supporting clients globally to meet their water and waste treatment needs. In partnership with the Rotary Clubs of Oakville, Ontario, Canada, and Tzaneen, South Africa, Jim has been directly involved in village scale water treatment projects in both Vietnam and in South Africa.
David, originally from England and a former resident of Montreal, has been a Rotary member since 1979. David has served on a number of WASH committees and remains passionate about addressing the needs of people without access to clean drinking water. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Rotarian Water Foundation. David’s career spans more than 40 years of achievements in the financial services industry.
Gwenn became the first lady to become a Rotarian in Tzaneen in 2001, serving as Club President for both the Tzaneen Rotary Club and the Letaba Rotary Club. While heavily involved with education projects in rural schools around the greater Tzaeneen Muncipial area, Gwenn noticed water challenges faced by most schools in the region. Gwenn helped forge a partnership with Zenon and the Water for Humanity Project.
Thank you for our three panelists for taking time out of your busy schedules to talk with us today.
[BOB]
Thanks for participating, everyone.
Let’s begin with a brief overview of the Water & Sanitation Rotarian Action Group.
- A group of technical experts who assist clubs and districts with water, sanitation, and hygiene projects
- Assists Rotary Clubs and Districts Implement WASH Projects.
Implementing rainwater harvesting
Building toilets and sanitation systems
Digging wells and drilling boreholes
Building dams and gully plugs; recharging aquifers
Building local capacity, changing behaviour
Working with NGOs, CBOs to create self-sufficiency
Setting up factories to build slow-sand filters
Creating opportunities for entrepreneurs in the WASH supply chain
And much more!
- Wasrag has more than 1650 members
- Wasrag is a truly global organization. We have members in 92 countries, located in some 320 Rotary Districts. We are represented in all of Rotary’s zones and support Rotary projects around the world.
Membership is open to Rotarians, family members of Rotarians, Rotary program participants and alumni
I’ll come back to more about Wasrag at the end of this webinar.
[BOB]
Now let’s hear from our panelists. Remember, if you have any questions for our panelists, for Wasrag members, or for Rotary staff, please submit them using your question pane.
David, Jim, and Gwenn, thank you again for joining us today.
[David]
My name is David Angas - a proud Rotarian for over 35 years.
I am very pleased to talk to you today about a collaborative effort between Rotary and the private sector that led to a major water project in sub Saharan Africa to commemorate the Rotary centennial.
[DAVID]
The initial partners were the four rotary clubs in Oakville, Ontario, Canada that sat together 11 years ago to brainstorm the idea. As volunteer Rotarians, we very quickly realized that the key to success in this ambitious endeavor of ours was finding more partners; a private sector partner that could help us source the right equipment, a host country Rotary club that could act as project manager and funding partners included the Canadian government to help us raise the money we needed.
We decided to start with the private sector first and after doing some homework; we approached Dr. Andrew Benedek, founder and CEO of Zenon Environmental – a publically traded Canadian company who were a world leader in the development, manufacturing and installation of water filtration systems.
[DAVID]
Zenon had been in the news a lot at the time. Their patented technology was being used in regions of the world that were impacted by recurring natural disasters or other causes that made access to safe drinking water a growing problem.
Since their word headquarters was located in our community, we initially contacted them to see if we could purchase one of their portable units that could be installed somewhere in sub Saharan where it was most needed. Dr. Benedeck immediately expressed interest in supporting the idea and introduced us to a team of senior managers and design engineers who were part of a corporate initiative he had started a few years before called Water for Humanity.
At this point, I am going to introduce you to Jim Imrie who spearheaded Zenon’s involvement in this project from the very beginning.
Jim and I have travelled together to Ghana, South Africa and Bolivia and we have attended a number of Rotary International Water Conferences as well. Jim is a Paul Harris Fellow and a friend. Over to you, Jim
[JIM]
Thank you David.
My name is Jim Imrie and I’ve been in the Water Treatment business for over 30 years, having joined Zenon Environmental in 1984. Zenon was a progressive Canadian Water Treatment Company led by Andrew Benedek. In the late 1990’s we began an initiative we called Water for Humanity with the intent to provide safe drinking water, using our expertise, our technology, our staff and our vendors. Staff donated their time to design, engineer and implement the projects and our vendors donated or provided discounts so that we could take on larger projects at a reduced overall cost. The model work very well and between 1999 and 2006 we delivered 3 such projects globally.
Our first project in 1999 was in Bear Island Ontario, Canada, a First Nation community that had been dealing with Cryptosporidium problems. We worked with the local tribal council, their consultant and contractor to provide a sustainable solution. Our second project in 2002 was in central Vietnam where we provide a containerized 70,000 Gallon per day water plant in partnership with both the socialist government of Vietnam and a private sponsor. The local government took on key infrastructure, operations and security while our private sponsor funded the finished water storage facility. These projects were extremely successful and in both cases remain in operation today and they also taught us an important lesson. The importance of good partners! We don’t have local contacts everywhere in the world, we are not infrastructure focused. We need to do what we are good at and find a partner or partners that can help us achieve the overall project. So when David and the Rotary leaders of Oakville reached out to us we saw the fit. We saw an organization with global reach, with contacts at the local level and a passion and commitment second to none.
Our number one criterion has always been sustainability. 100’s of millions if not billions of dollars’ worth of donated equipment sits abandoned globally because the time was not taken to ensure sustainability. We had developed a key questionnaire that we used when evaluating projects and we put that to use with Rotary sending it out to key clubs in Sub-Saharan Africa, looking for the right fit. We started with about 30 applicants, boiled it down to less then 5 and then got on a plane and went to visit each of the sites. It was this personal interview process that really told the story. The real lesson is to invest in your site selection, its money well spent!
The Project we undertook in Tzaneen, was complex to be sure. Integrating a containerized 140,000 Gallon Per Day Ultrafiltration system into an existing municipal water plant both expanding their water production capability as well as improving their treated water quality, running kilometers of pipeline, tying in multiple villages and all of it happening 1000’s of miles away with multiple levels of local and regional government. How do you do that well without the right local partner and a clear understanding of the roles and responsibilities each has. Gwenn’s commitment in country to manage the local and regional government folks and bring the right parties together in a manner that simply couldn’t have been accomplished remotely was a key to this success the continued ongoing support after delivery helped ensure the long term sustainability of the project.
In the years since having been acquired by General Electric our focus has changed somewhat but the mission remains the same. My role in todays GE Water for Humanity Council is that of the Advisor on Water to the GE Foundation, our corporate citizenship arm. We have deployed emergency water equipment to China, Haiti and the Philippines and have an ongoing project under the banner of Developing Health Globally with the Foundation and GE Health Care with water systems now installed in Honduras, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda and projects now pending in both Cambodia and Uganda where we are evaluating the potential of joint projects with Rotary. In each and every case the key ingredients in the recipe are the right partners and a clear and documented agreement/memorandum of understanding with the end user on what each party is going to deliver. In each and every project we have ever delivered we have ensured that the end user or recipient had some skin in the game, they took ownership of some piece of the overall project and our local partner ensured they delivered.
I’d like to hand it over to Gwenn who, as the person on the ground, had to manage the key pieces as they came together and keep all her local partners on time and on budget. Over to you Gwenn.
[GWENN]
Thank you Jim.
I am Gwenn van Schalkwyk a Past President of Tzaneen Rotary Club an Accountant and I worked for the Education Department as a Project Manager.
Meeting sessions with members of the Greater Tzaneen Municipality paved our way forward. They introduced us to a construction company, Ekageng, who donated the trenching of the pipeline from Letsitele. The mayor of Tzaneen signed approval to receive the water plant donation on behalf of the community of Tzaneen.
During this period, the national government insisted that all water projects include the services of qualified engineers which is not a requirement of the local Government.
Since we didn’t have a shipping budget, Mr. Dietlof Basson committed to helping us acquire the needed supplies. Safmarine was the shipping company who was responsible for shipping the container to South Africa and Expeditors, who assisted us at no cost, delivered the plant to Tzaneen.
When the plant arrived in Tzaneen, the Municipality made a trench to level the location of the plant and it was impossible for the truck that downloaded the container to place the container in its correct location. One of our Rotary members phoned his son, an engineer, who used a shuffle method to get the container into its rightful place. Tears of relief!
Because of our involvement in a Number Skills Programme in the schools where the water plant was constructed, our relationship with the circuit manager helped us gain permission to implement a learner programme on clean water with documents that we received from the Department of Health with the help of one of our Rotarians.
Our visiting Rotarians from Canada brought pencils and soccer balls and together we paid a visit to all the schools teaching health and hygiene.
Zenon sent a team to connect the water plant. We needed people to assist with the trenching. I requested that we use the local labour and insisted on using women as they are the most marginalized members of the community. After it was fenced off, a security guard was needed at the plant. A young lady by the name of Virginia was employed as the night guard. Virginia started paging through the files left by the Zenon engineers. Virginia was enthusiastic and proactive about asking technical questions. When I came back a few years later, I found Virginia to be the Plant Manager.A few years later, Virginia Madike, now the Water Manager for the Greater Tzaneen Municipality, invited me to a visit in her Tzaneen office. She received a Blue Drop Womens Award 2011 from national government for her contribution to having clean blue drop water in our community.
With gratitude for our partnership with Zenon/GE, the Water for Humanity Project did not only provide clean water to our community but also created an opportunity for women.
[DAVID]
In closing, I would just like to say that this incredible success story of how Rotary and the private sector can work so well together led to 5 more water projects in 23 locations in 6 countries on 3 different continents bringing relief to more than 150,000 people.
It has also led to a sense of awareness that didn’t exist 10 years ago that makes our job a lot easier today in connecting with corporate partners.
One tip I can leave you with - there is a lot of available support out there from the private sector who are more than willing to help Rotary.
Do your homework first. Don’t be frightened to approach them. Be specific about your needs and make sure that their supportive efforts are recognized.
[BOB]
If you are interested in assisting Wasrag with our work, become a member! Lack of WASH is an affront to humanity. Help Rotarian help others.
When one jumbo jet crashes the world, rightfully, reacts with horror. Yet the equivalent of more than a dozen planeloads of people die every day from the lack of clean water and sanitation – and the world hardly notices.
Join us to combat this global crisis.
Just go to www.wasrag.org and follow the links.
[BOB]
Will you attend the RI convention in Sao Paulo in 2015?
Come a day early and attend Wasrag’s World Water Summit VII on Thursday June 4th.
Topic: WASH in Schools. The registration site will be open by the end of October 2014.
www.wasrag.org
[BOB]
Thank you again to our panelists Jim, David, and Gwenn. We appreciate all of your support and assistance.
All of our participants will be receiving a survey after the webinar. Please take the time to complete the survey honestly. We appreciate your feedback on your experience. As a reminder, we also recorded today’s webinar, and we will be sending out a link to view the recording within 24 hours.
Thank you for participating in today’s webinar!