WASH News and Stories

WASH-RAG Goes Global: Rotterdam, IHE Delft and New Partnerships

By Singanallur SrikanthMonday, September 21, 2026

WASH-RAG had a strong presence at the Rotary European Action Summit in Rotterdam, held September 11–13, 2026. Our booth attracted many visitors, and the WASH-RAG Action Conference & Dinner on September 11 at the Postillion Hotel brought together an engaged and knowledgeable audience for an excellent program of speakers and discussion.

A special thank-you goes to our Regional Coordinator, Dilip Mirchandani, whose hard work helped make WASH-RAG’s participation a success, and to Board member Bas Hendriksen for his important support.

Building a Partnership with IHE Delft

Thanks to Bas, WASH-RAG also had the opportunity to meet with the leadership of IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, one of the world’s leading institutions for graduate education in water.

Chair S. N. Srikanth and colleagues met with Operations Director Han de Groot and his team to discuss potential areas of cooperation, including opportunities for scholars to study at IHE Delft and the development of joint educational programs with certificates issued by both IHE Delft and WASH-RAG. The group also discussed how IHE Delft might support WASH-RAG’s “3 Districts Initiative.”

During the visit, the WASH-RAG team was also invited to a meeting with Rotary International President Yinka Babalola, Rotary International General Secretary John Hewko, Rotary International Directors Dr. Harriette Verwey and Emmanuel Katongole, and others. Srikanth shared WASH-RAG’s vision for helping advance Sustainable Development Goal 6—clean water and sanitation for all—through Rotary and beyond. President Yinka expressed interest in continuing the discussion, and further conversations are planned.

Connecting with Rotary Club H2O

Following the Rotterdam Summit, Srikanth traveled to Basel, Switzerland, where he met with leaders of Rotary Club H2O, including Immediate Past President Christiane Hamacher. The club has a special focus on WASH and brings together Rotarians from Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Germany, and Austria.

The club is interested in closer cooperation with WASH-RAG and is also considering having the club itself become a WASH-RAG member.

The Opportunity for WASH Theme Clubs

These conversations point to an exciting opportunity for WASH-RAG: encouraging the development of more Rotary clubs specifically focused on WASH.

WASH-focused clubs could become important partners in advancing WASH-RAG’s goals, while creating a network of Rotarians with particular expertise, commitment, and interest in water, sanitation and hygiene. WASH-RAG may also explore opportunities to welcome Rotary clubs as members, in addition to individual Rotarians.

We encourage WASH-RAG Board and Operations Team members to participate in Rotary Institutes and District Conferences around the world. These gatherings provide valuable opportunities to introduce WASH-RAG, build relationships and develop new partnerships.

Finally, thank you to Gunes Ertas, our Cadre member and Ambassador, for covering the Rotterdam events and sharing them on social media—and to everyone who helped make WASH-RAG’s presence in Europe such a success.

WASH Ambassadors: Advocating, Growing, and Making an Impact

By Stephen Mark WernerMonday, September 21, 2026

Update from the Ambassador Program:

First, a big thank you to all Ambassadors for everything that you are doing to be strong ambassadors (advocates) for WASH in your District. Please continue to ask your District leaders (DGs, DGEs, DGNs) to mention how the WASH Area of Focus can help all the other Areas of Focus to be more effective. Just one small example…the economic/community development wants to help create more economic benefits, but men can’t work as much when they suffer from chronic, preventable water-related health concerns, and women can’t be as productive if a lot of their time is spent fetching water (usually from unsafe sources) or they have to repeatedly care for sick family members. It would also be nice for Rotary clubs to follow up on their WASH projects by helping women create small enterprises that they can do when they spend less time fetching water.

Second, we are one-third towards our goal of having at least one Ambassador in every one of the 530 Rotary Districts in the world. But we need your help to recommend someone to be an Ambassador if you work with a Rotarian on WASH projects in a District that doesn’t have an Ambassador (https://www.wash-rag.org/ambassadors/). Our vetting process is very quick and easy, and mainly is focused on the volunteer job responsibilities and time commitment, so we just need you to introduce us to someone who would be a strong Ambassador, and then we’ll take it from there. (And you can self-nominate yourself if you are interested in becoming an Ambassador.)

Finally, a few thank-yous (which is difficult to do since so many of you are helping a lot), Dilip Mirchandani from Belgium, with help from other Ambassadors in Europe, had a wonderful focus on WASH and the WASH Ambassador program at the Rotary Rotterdam Zone Institute held a few weeks ago. Thank you, Dilip and team! Also, Rick Chinn and Ralph Young from the U.S. have done a lot to process new Ambassador applications, and they have made the process easier and more impactful. We have about 7-10 new Ambassadors joining every month. And finally, Ranjeev Shrestha from Nepal has done a lot to post stories on WASH-RAG’s social media pages, while he helps his fellow Ambassadors and Rotarians deal with the recovery from their terrible floods that made international news. Thank you, Ranjeev, and everyone helping with that terrible humanitarian crisis.

The Well at Katanga

By Christopher RoeselMonday, September 21, 2026

Adile is a young woman from Katanga village, Uganda. Her story shows how access to clean water can change much more than a family’s daily routine—from health and education to women’s leadership and economic opportunity.

The story grew out of our community assessment and illustrates why the proposed Rotary Global Grant takes an integrated, community-led approach to WASH, health, education, and economic empowerment.

The Well at Katanga

When Adile was seven, her mornings began before the sun. She would wake in the gray dark to the sound of her mother gathering the jerrycans, and together they would walk the two hours to the nearest water point that still had water in it — a muddy seasonal stream shared with cattle and, some mornings, with the fevered bodies of children too sick to be carried any farther.

Adile did not go to school that year, or the next. There was no time between fetching water, caring for her younger brothers when the fever came, and helping her mother grind what little maize the family could spare from the garden. Malaria moved through their home like a second family member, always present, always taking something — a week here, a season there, once, when Adile was nine, her brother.

She remembers the year the drilling rig came to Katanga village. She remembers it the way people remember weather events — the day the rains changed. Men in orange vests measured and dug, and one afternoon, water came up clean and cold from deep in the earth, and the whole village gathered around the borehole as though it were a birth.

Her mother was elected to the new Water User Committee. Adile remembers being embarrassed by how proudly her mother carried the little cash box after collections, how she stood at village meetings and read out numbers — money in, money spent — in a voice that did not used to exist in her.

The whole effort, Adile came to understand only as she got older, had been carried by the Rotary Club of Yumbe — a small club of local men and women who had spent years walking the same paths the villagers walked, listening more than they spoke, before any drill ever touched the ground. It was the club's women, in particular, who Adile's mother trusted first. They met weekly, in a borrowed room or under whatever tree gave the best shade, going over ledgers and plans and the small, stubborn details of getting a borehole from an idea to clean water — who would carry the message to the district office, who would check on the gravel pack, who would make sure the youngest mothers were not left off the committee rolls. They were not outsiders arriving with answers. They were neighbors who had organized themselves to ask better questions, and to keep asking them long after the excitement of the drilling rig had worn off.

That same year, small paper-wrapped devices appeared in the corner of their sleeping room, and a Village Health Team volunteer showed her mother how to fix them to the wall, one for the big room, and explained why the family should keep sleeping under their nets even so. Adile did not understand the chemistry of it. She only understood that the fever came less that year. And the year after, it came almost not at all.

With the hours no longer spent walking to the stream, and with her own health no longer a coin flip each rainy season, Adile went to school for the first time at eleven, sitting among children years younger, her legs too long for the bench. She was ashamed until she wasn't — until the numbers began to make sense to her, and the letters stopped swimming, and a teacher trained in a new way of teaching sang the alphabet with the whole class in a call-and-response that made even the shyest children answer.

Her mother, meanwhile, had joined the savings group that met under the mango tree on Thursdays. Small coins became a small loan became three goats became, eventually, a stall at the trading center selling dried fish and soap. The household that had once measured its year in fevers began to measure it in small surpluses — a second set of school uniforms, a tin roof to replace the thatch, seed for a second planting.

Adile grew up inside that slow unwinding. She finished primary school. She became, herself, a member of the Water User Committee her mother had once served on, one of the women whose names were now written into the record book without anyone treating it as strange. She married a man from a neighboring village who had grown up under his own borehole, in his own version of this same quiet transformation, and they built a house within walking distance — not carrying distance, walking distance — of clean water.

Her children do not know what it is to wake before dawn for water that might not be there. They do not carry the particular exhaustion of a mother who has spent a childhood being sick. They go to school because school is simply what children do, not because someone spent years insisting it should be so. Adile watches her daughter do her letters at the kitchen table by the light of a solar lamp, unhurried, uninterrupted by fever, and she thinks, without quite having the words for it, that the good years did not arrive by accident. They arrived because a well was dug, and a room was treated, and a woman — her mother — was handed a cash box and trusted to hold it.

It is a small story, hers. It will not appear in any report. But multiplied by sixteen villages, by three thousand households, by seventeen thousand people waking up on a given morning without walking two hours for water that might make them sick — it is also, quietly, the whole story.

What Adile could not have seen, from inside her own small life at Katanga, was how far the shape of it would travel. The district water office kept the records. Other clubs visited, asked questions, copied the ledgers and the committee structures, adjusted them for their own soils and their own rivers. What had worked in Yumbe was, item for item, inexpensive — a handpump, a length of pipe, a cheap insecticide device, a notebook, a savings box — and it was that cheapness, joined to how well it worked, that made it spread. NGOs took notice first, then UNICEF teams evaluating water and health programs across the region, then ministries in neighboring countries looking for something that did not require a large budget to try. Across Uganda, and then into parts of Kenya, Tanzania, and beyond, the same quiet formula reappeared under different names: a borehole paired with a women-led committee, a health team paired with an affordable disease-prevention tool, a savings group paired with basic literacy, all of it owned and run by the community itself once the first hard year was over.

None of it replaced Adile's own memory of the day the water came up clean. But she would live to see, in the accounts of visitors and in the occasional radio broadcast, that her mother's cash box and her own place on the committee rolls had become, without either of them intending it, a kind of pattern — one small women's group meeting weekly under a tree, multiplied a thousand times over, teaching a continent something it had perhaps always known and simply needed to see proven: that the most durable change is the kind that costs little, asks permission, and hands the ledger to the women who will actually keep it.

The Economics of Water - Valuing the Hydrological Cycle as a Global Common Good

By Stewart MartinMonday, September 21, 2026

Here’s a great, easy-to-read resource for anyone interested in WASH and the global water crisis. The Economics of Water explains why water is more than a local resource—it is a global common good—and explores the hydrological cycle, water stress, groundwater overuse, and the economic value of water. Take a few minutes to explore the website, then scroll to the bottom for the Executive Summary or the full report. It’s well worth sharing with your club and district WASH colleagues. https://watercommission.org

Be a Handwashing Hero

By Ian RumblesMonday, September 21, 2026

October 15 is Global Handwashing Day, a day to raise awareness and understanding of the importance of washing hands with soap.

The multi-year theme, “Be a Handwashing Hero” is a creative way to encourage people to stop the spread of infections and harmful germs by using soap effectively when handwashing.

Visit their Resources page to get factsheets, infographics, logos and much more, in multiple languages.

The Invisible Threat in Drinking Water

By Ian RumblesSunday, September 20, 2026

Arsenic in Drinking Water: The Hidden WASH Crisis

Unsafe drinking water isn’t always visibly contaminated. Arsenic—a naturally occurring contaminant in groundwater—affects millions of people worldwide, particularly in parts of South and Southeast Asia. Because arsenic cannot be seen, smelled, or tasted, people can unknowingly consume contaminated water for years.

Long-term exposure is associated with serious health impacts, including skin lesions, cancers, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. The burden can also extend to household finances and livelihoods through increased healthcare costs and chronic illness.

The challenge is significant, but solutions exist. Testing can identify contaminated wells, communities can be connected to safer water sources, and treatment technologies can remove arsenic effectively. A project at a primary school near Hanoi, Vietnam, reduced groundwater arsenic from 0.55 mg/L to below 0.001 mg/L, providing safer drinking water to more than 1,000 children and community members.

The key message for the WASH sector is simple: access to water is not enough—water must also be safe. Arsenic testing, public awareness, alternative water supplies, appropriate treatment, health support, research, and sustained funding all have a role to play.

Arsenic in Drinking Water: The Hidden WASH Crisis

When we think about unsafe drinking water, we usually think about bacteria, viruses, diarrhea and diseases such as cholera.

But millions of people face another threat from their drinking water—one they cannot see, smell or taste. Arsenic.

Arsenic occurs naturally in the soil and rock in many parts of the world. Under certain geological conditions, it enters groundwater. When that groundwater is used for drinking and cooking, people can unknowingly consume arsenic for years.

The problem is particularly serious in parts of South and Southeast Asia, where millions of people depend on groundwater wells for their daily water.

How big is the problem?

The numbers are startling.

Information from the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 140 million people in at least 70 countries have consumed drinking water containing arsenic above the WHO provisional guideline of 10 micrograms per litre.

Other research summarized estimates that 94 million to 220 million people may potentially be exposed to high arsenic concentrations in groundwater, with the vast majority of those people living in Asia.

And the full extent of the problem may not yet be known. In regions where groundwater testing and reliable statistics are limited, contaminated wells can remain unidentified.
That is what makes arsenic such a difficult WASH problem. The water may look perfectly clean.

What happens to people?

Unlike a waterborne disease that can make someone sick within days, arsenic poisoning generally develops through long-term exposure.

People may drink contaminated water for many years before serious health problems become apparent.

Long-term exposure to arsenic has been associated with skin lesions and cancers as well as cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Exposure during pregnancy and early childhood has also been linked to negative effects on cognitive development.

The consequences extend beyond health. Chronic illness can affect people's ability to work, increase medical expenses and place additional economic pressure on families and communities.

In Bangladesh alone, a national survey estimated nearly 43,000 deaths annually from arsenic poisoning.

The problem is not limited to one country

Bangladesh may be one of the best-known examples, but arsenic-contaminated groundwater is found across many countries.

In Vietnam's Red River Delta, for example, about 17 million people live in a region where arsenic-contaminated groundwater is widespread. Many depend on groundwater as their reliable source of drinking water.

And arsenic is not exclusively an Asian problem. It also occurs in groundwater in other regions of the world. The challenge is particularly concerning where groundwater testing is limited.

There are solutions

The good news is that arsenic contamination does not mean a community must continue drinking unsafe water.

The first step is knowing the problem exists.

Groundwater can be tested for arsenic. Unsafe water sources can be identified. Communities can be educated about which sources are safe. Communities can sometimes be provided with alternative water sources, and proven technologies can remove arsenic from contaminated water.

A project at Tien Phong Primary School near Hanoi, Vietnam, demonstrates what is possible. Groundwater there contained arsenic at 0.55 mg/L—55 times the Vietnamese drinking-water standard. Following treatment, arsenic was reduced to below 0.001 mg/L.

Since the system was commissioned in 2021, it has provided clean drinking water to more than 1,000 schoolchildren and people living near the school.

Technology is less important than the lesson:
Arsenic can be detected.
Exposure can be prevented.
Contaminated water can be treated.

A challenge for the WASH community

Perhaps the most important lesson is that providing access to water is not enough.
A well may provide plentiful water. The water may be clear. It may taste fine. And it may be free from the microorganisms that cause many familiar waterborne diseases.

But that does not necessarily mean it is safe to drink.

Water quality testing—including testing for naturally occurring contaminants such as arsenic—needs to be part of our understanding of safe water.

Addressing the problem requires more than treatment equipment. It requires testing, public education, safe water supplies, appropriate treatment where needed, health support for affected people, continued research and adequate funding.

For the WASH community, arsenic is both a warning and an opportunity.

Millions of people may be drinking contaminated water today without knowing it.

We know how to find the problem. We know how to address it. The challenge is making sure we don't overlook at-risk communities.

Water Footprint: Concepts, Assessment Methods, and Applications

By Rajendrakumar SarafSunday, September 20, 2026

Water use extends far beyond what we see at the tap. The Water Footprint (WFP) measures the direct and indirect freshwater consumed and polluted throughout the lifecycle of products, services, and processes.

By looking at Green, Blue, and Grey Water Footprints, we can better understand pressures on rainfall, rivers, aquifers, and water quality. The approach has applications across agriculture, energy, industry, water infrastructure, and urban development.

From reducing irrigation demand and fixing distribution leaks to reusing treated wastewater and harvesting rainwater, Water Footprint assessment can help identify practical opportunities for more sustainable water management.

Read the full article to explore the concepts, assessment methods, applications, and policy implications of Water Footprint.

Water Footprint: Concepts, Assessment Methods, and Applications

Rtn Rajendrakumar V Saraf Director WASH RAG

Abstract

The Water Footprint (WFP) is an analytical framework—analogous to the Carbon Footprint—used to quantify direct and indirect freshwater consumption and pollution across the Raw Material–Process–Product–Consumer supply chain. Categorized into Green, Blue, and Grey components, WFP evaluates direct rainwater utilization, finite surface/groundwater depletion, and effluent-driven pollution loads. This paper examines WFP calculation methodologies, component dynamics, and domain-specific applications to inform sustainable water resource management and policy frameworks.

Introduction

Rapid economic expansion, demographic shifts, and industrialization have placed unprecedented pressure on global freshwater systems. Traditional water resource assessments often focus solely on direct extraction at the user level, ignoring the extensive indirect water usage embedded within supply chains.

The Water Footprint (WFP) addresses this limitation by measuring the total cumulative volume of freshwater utilized directly and indirectly across the entire lifecycle of a product, process, or service. WFP is categorized into three mutually exclusive components:

Green Water Footprint: The volume of rainwater stored in the soil mantle as soil moisture (green water) that is consumed through evapotranspiration or incorporated by vegetation during growth.

Blue Water Footprint: The volume of surface water or groundwater (lakes, rivers, aquifers) consumed—defined as water evaporated, incorporated into a product, or abstracted without returning to the same catchment area within the same cycle.

Grey Water Footprint: An indicator of freshwater pollution, calculated as the volume of ambient receiving water required to dilute pollutant loads to concentrations below prevailing water quality standards.

Component Analysis and Mathematical Formulations

Green and Blue Water Dynamics

Agricultural systems are heavily reliant on rainfall However, the expansion of intensive crop production and shifting precipitation patterns have driven an increasing reliance on surface and groundwater extraction.

This transition from green to blue water dependency creates systemic risks:

Accelerated depletion of unconfined and confined aquifer systems.
Interstate and inter-boundary water allocation disputes.
Industrial downtime and supply chain halts during prolonged drought events (e.g., the 2013 operational shutdown of the Parali Thermal Power Station due to acute river basin depletion).

To ensure environmental sustainability, resource management strategies must focus on maximizing green water productivity through soil moisture preservation and rainwater harvesting, while simultaneously minimizing blue water abstractions.

Grey Water Footprint Assessment

The Grey Water Footprint quantifies the assimilative capacity of water bodies needed to absorb point and non-point source pollution. It is mathematically formulated as below

The simplest way of calculation of Grey Water Footprint is as below,

Product Water Footprint Framework

Indirect & direct Consumption: Accounting for upstream and downstream water requirements across the entire supply chain gives the Blue Water footprint. When the Grey Water Footprint at each stage is added it becomes the total Water Footprint.

Water Footprint of energy: It depends on the type of the Power Plant. In the case of a Hydropower plant, the Water Footprint of the energy produced will be almost negligible. Water Foot Print of energy generated from a Thermal Power Plant will be large as it requires water for Soft & DM water generation, coal handling, steam generation, Ash handling, Cooling tower & domestic activities etc. The summation of all these, plus the Grey Water Footprint, will yield the Water Footprint of energy. Once it is known Water Foot Print of energy consumed in the process can be calculated

Water Footprint of Water: The water is pumped from the source to the Water Treatment Plant (WTP). From the WTP, it goes to the consumer's tap through the water distribution system. Water is lost in pipeline leakages, as drain out from the sedimentation tank, and as backwash & rinse water from the filter. Leakages must also be accounted for in the distribution system. Leakage varies from 0% to 20% depending on the location. 1000 liters of water delivered accounts for 1250 liters of Blue water. Thus, leak detection and control must be taken seriously to reduce the Water Footprint of Water.

Water Foot Print of Product

Milk: In milk production, indirect Water Foot Print incorporates water requirement of feed crop cultivation, livestock care, transport fuel energy footprints, processing, refrigeration, and consumer activities & grey water foot print at each stage. It is shown in figure below.

Water Footprints of some products are given in the figure below.

Specific Footprint Applications

Domain	Assessment Focus	Key Mitigation Strategy
Energy	High WFP in thermal plants (cooling, ash handling, steam generation).	Shift to renewable sources or reuse treated municipal sewage.
Water Infrastructure	Distribution losses (1000 L delivered often requires 1250 L Blue Water).	Strict leak detection and pressure control.
Urban Dwellers	High average per capita footprint (~4,644 LPCD total WFP, heavily driven by Grey WFP dilution requirements).	Mandatory 100% sewage treatment and rooftop rainwater harvesting.
Agriculture	High Blue WFP due to inefficient surface irrigation.	Adopt drip irrigation and align cropping patterns with local rainy seasons.

Policy Applications and Policy Recommendations

Virtual Water Trade Policy: Regions facing severe blue water scarcity can align import/export policies to import high-WFP commodities (e.g., water-intensive agricultural grains) from water-abundant regions, effectively preserving local groundwater reserves.
Standardized Eco-Labeling: Establishing standardized WFP metrics enables consumer-facing eco-labels. This incentivizes manufacturers to systematically reduce water footprints across supply chains to maintain competitive advantage.
Industrial Closed-Loop Integration: Utilizing Grey WFP metrics as a primary sustainability benchmark drives industries toward Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) systems, drastically reducing raw water intake and ambient receiving body contamination.
Urban Rainwater Harvesting: Capturing rainwater directly at the point of use reduces the demand on municipal surface storage dams and minimizes the energy/chemical footprints of centralized water purification plants.

Conclusion: Integrating Green, Blue, and Grey Water Footprint assessment standards into national regulatory frameworks is a critical imperative for resolving acute water scarcity. Beyond localized water balance metrics, WFP provides a holistic framework to audit cross-sectoral supply chains, optimize virtual water trade, direct corporate ESG policies, and implement resource-efficient management practices across industry and agriculture.

AI Corner with Stew: June 2026 on Indicators

By Stewart MartinTuesday, June 30, 2026

AI Corner with Stew:

As you consider whether and how to do a WASH project, or improve a program:

- What tools and indicators actually measure success and impact of a project?

- When do you need to measure them to see if the Outcomes actually happen?

- How long will you need to measure to assure long-term sustainable Impact is achieved?

Here are some "Standard Rotary Indicators" (see WASH Guidelines):

Water and treatment:

- People gaining access to basic drinking water services (and safely managed services)

- Schools or health care facilities gaining access to basic drinking water services (and safely managed services)

- People receiving improved service quality from an existing drinking-water service

- Water quality compared with national standards for microbial and priority chemical contaminants

Sanitation:

- People gaining access to basic sanitation services (and safely managed services)

- Schools or health care facilities gaining access to basic sanitation services (and safely managed services)

- Communities verified as open-defecation-free

- People receiving improved sanitation service quality from an existing limited or basic service

Hygiene and Handwashing:

- Households with soap and water at a commonly used handwashing station

Q: Are these indicators (measures of success) sufficient for your project, or program?
What indicators will you add, so you can determine success?

Take, for instance, a middle school in Madagascar, or Honduras:

- what did your Community Assessment show as important?

- what are the concerns of the teachers, parents? the students? the health officer, education officer?

- how about girls in puberty? disabled students?

To become successful, what behavior change will need to happen:

- in the teachers and headmaster, so they care about WASH, and ensure good clean practices are followed?

- in the health or education officer, so they inspect regularly, insist a school be safe, do WASH well?

- in the county/district school budget, so the school has enough funds for a janitor, plumber, replacement parts?

What indicators will measure whether your theory of change is accurate, and your Inputs and Outputs actually achieve sustainable long-term Impact?

AI Suggestion: Feed your community assessment, map, goals, risks, list of concerns, standard measures, some custom indicators, everything on this topic - - into your favorite AI platform. Ask AI to determine a) a set of custom indicators, b) how often they should be measured, and for how many years until you can be assured that a permanent change has been achieved.

You may be pleasantly surprised!

Then, discuss the indicators and methods of measuring them with a Cadre member in your district or region - ask them for specific advice based on their experience. If you can't find one, write to Cadre@Rotary.org.

Note: Rotary has issued new AI Guidelines (link here) and, among other things, asks you to remove PII (personally identifiable information) and sensitive data from your input to AI. You can do it manually, have an AI programmer help you, or use a Windows program called CamoText.

Projects and Programs

By Kumaraswamy SivakumaranTuesday, June 30, 2026

Projects and Programs

Introduction:

The Projects and Programs team has been working hard during the past couple of months on a variety of projects. We are glad to inform the readers that the Rotary Foundation has approved seven WASH Projects. The projects that were approved are from the following countries: Peru, Paraguay, and Costa Rica located in Central and South America, and Kenya, Ghana, and South Sudan located in Africa. Further, three Global Grant Applications are being reviewed, and $600 was awarded to the RC of Ratna Nagar, Nepal, for preliminary engineering studies. Finally, as part of providing technical advice, the team provided a hydrologic memorandum to the Rotary Club of Mount Shasta, CA, and a note for a water treatment approach to remove iron from groundwater to the Rotary Club of Paducah, KY. Figure 1 shows the locations of the various countries where the projects are ongoing.

We also had our team meeting on May 9^thwhere we discussed the role of reviewers and quality assurance in the reviews. Stew Martin, Technical Officer and Cadre, made a presentation entitled “Professional Rotary WASH Global Grant Review” to the attendees. Further, Projects and Programs Vice Chair, Richard Chinn, presented a draft Flow Chart that described the Global Grant Review by the Projects and Programs Team. We hope to upload the flowchart on the website so that the members know WASHRAG’s Global Grant Review Process

In the following pages, we have summarized the various WASH Projects that have been approved by the Rotary Foundation.

Ghana: GG2686335: Mpintsin Ghana Water Project

The Mpintsin community in Ghana’s Western Region will gain reliable access to safe drinking water through a connection to a nearby treatment facility supplied by the Pra River. The project will install HDPE pipelines, standpipes, and smart meters serving two hundred households, a school, and a market. With more than 10,000 residents currently dependent on limited and often unsafe water sources, the project will improve public health, reduce water collection burdens on women and children, enhance safety, and provide lasting social and economic benefits.

Colombia: GG2575183 – Water Source of Light

This project will improve access to safe drinking water for schools in the rural communities of Laurel, La Camelia, Pueblo Rico, El Jardín, La Morelia Baja, and La Sagrada Familia in Quimbaya, Colombia. Water treatment plants will be installed to convert untreated agricultural water into potable water, complemented by storage tank upgrades, civil works, and hygiene education. Benefiting approximately eight hundred people, the project will promote healthier learning environments, sustainable water use, and improved community well-being.

Kenya: GG 2688239 -Kasule Community Health Facility Integrated Solar and Water Project

This project will provide clean, dependable, and affordable water to the Kasule Community Health Clinic and surrounding village, benefiting women and children most affected by water scarcity. The initiative includes upgrading the clinic’s solar power system to support water pumping, maternity services, laboratory operations, vaccine storage, and lighting. Improved sanitation facilities and community hygiene training will also be provided. Together, these improvements will enhance health services and benefit more than 2,500 patients and community members each month. Figure 2 is a schematic of the project.

Peru: GG 2687157 – Tomacaya Peru Water Distribution System Project

The Tomacaya Water Distribution System Project will provide the rural Andean community of Tomacaya, Peru, with reliable access to safe drinking water through a sustainable gravity-fed distribution network. The project will replace aging infrastructure, construct new water intake and storage facilities, and improve service to homes and community buildings. Benefiting six hundred–

seven hundred residents, the initiative will enhance public health, reduce the burden of water collection, and support local agriculture, small businesses, and long-term community development.

South Sudan: GG2460746 - Enhancing Water and Agriculture (WAG) Initiatives in Mangalla IDPs Camp, South Sudan.

Severe malnutrition continues to threaten children under five and pregnant and breastfeeding women in South Sudan. This project will improve food security, water access, and livelihoods for 50,000 internally displaced people in Mangalla, while benefiting more than 150,000 host community members. The initiative includes upgrading a community well with a new submersible pump, constructing a water storage tank, establishing a greenhouse, and launching a fish-farming program. Together, these efforts will strengthen nutrition, increase food production, and enhance community resilience.

Costa Rica: GG 2684768 - Improving 7 Communal Aqueducts' infrastructure in the Province of Guanacaste Phase 3, USD 64,673

This project will modernize aging water infrastructure in the Guanacaste communities of Nicoya, Carrillo, Hojancha, and Santa Cruz, Costa Rica. Much of the existing system is 35 to 50 years old and no longer meets current water demands. The project will repair, replace, and expand key water facilities to improve reliability and address population growth and changing water availability. Damaged hydrants, affected by repeated earthquakes, will also be replaced, strengthening community resilience and ensuring a more sustainable water supply.

Paraguay: GG 2577162 -Agua Segura, Comunidad Viva, (Safe Water, Long Life)

This project will provide safe drinking water to the rural communities of Fracción Aromita I, María Alejandra, and La Esperanza in Encarnación, Paraguay. The initiative includes drilling a 150- meter-deep groundwater well, installing a submersible pump, constructing a 30,000-liter elevated water tank, and developing a community water distribution network. In addition, residents will receive water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) training to promote proper resource management, improve public health, and ensure the long-term sustainability of the system.

(Note: Illustrations were created with AI assistance; they do not represent any individual or individuals, and some editorial assistance was used but verified by a human reviewer.)

Why WASH-RAG Membership Matters

Joining the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Rotary Action Group (WASH-RAG) empowers Rotarians, Rotaractors, and professionals with expert guidance, global partnerships, and practical resources to deliver sustainable, high-impact WASH projects. From strengthening Global Grant success and funding opportunities to improving long-term community health, education, and safety, WASH-RAG helps members move beyond infrastructure to lasting change. Read the full article to learn how WASH-RAG can amplify your impact worldwide.

The Importance of WASH-RAG Membership Recruitment

Membership in the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Rotary Action Group (WASH-RAG) is considered crucial for Rotarians, Rotaractors, and professionals because it offers specialised technical support, networking opportunities and resources to enhance the sustainability and impact of WASH projects worldwide.

As an officially recognised Action Group, it helps members move beyond just building infrastructure toward creating lasting, community-driven change.

Here is why WASH-RAG membership is so important:

1. Enhanced Project Success and Sustainability

Expert Review: Members can submit their Global Grant applications to the Professional Services Team, which reviews them to improve design, sustainability, and likelihood of approval by The Rotary Foundation.
Funding Incentives: The WASH-RAG Fund can provide a $2,000 donation to a Global Grant if the project receives a successful review, supporting the financial viability of the project.
Long-Term Impact: The group focuses on ensuring projects are not just installed but maintained, using tools like the "Sustainability Index Tool" and focusing on behavior change and training.

2. Expert Network and Resources

Technical Expertise: Members have access to a pool of professionals who provide advice on complex WASH issues, such as water quality, borehole construction, and sanitation, ensuring projects are technically sound.
Ambassador Network: The group provides over 100 ambassadors worldwide to help connect local clubs with international partners and technical resources.
Best Practices: Members have access to a library of best practices and "how-to" guides for various WASH activities.

3. Collaboration and Networking

Finding Partners: WASH-RAG can help clubs connect with other clubs and organisations to build coalitions and find international partners for Global Grants.
Partnerships: The group leverages partnerships with outside organisations, such as WaterAid, Water for People, UNICEF and Engineers Without Borders to support long-term programs.

4. Direct Impact on Global Health

Targeting Core Issues: WASH-RAG helps tackle the critical need for clean water and sanitation, which directly reduces waterborne diseases and improves the lives of millions.
Education and Safety: Projects, such as WASH in Schools (WinS), improve school attendance — particularly for girls — and protect them from violence by providing safe, private sanitation.

5. Education and Advocacy

Knowledge Sharing: Members receive, and can contribute to, newsletters, webinars and social media, staying updated on the latest in WASH.
Advocacy: The group supports, members in advocating for policies that bring about systemic change at local and national levels.

Membership is open to all who want to make a difference, not just Rotarians, making it a diverse, and, knowledgeable community dedicated to solving the water crisis.

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