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The PNG Project Tony, as guest speaker, was introduced by Chairman Mal Price. He spoke to the club about this year’s PNG project. The Rotary Club of Warrnambool’s team comprising Tony Austin, Mal Price, Richard Wilton and Ewen Urquhart (RC Geelong) arrived in PNG Friday July 14. The container with 10 tonnes of the team’s tools, equipment, food and humanitarian aid materials had arrived at Oro bay 10 July but PNG bureaucracy and its questionable practices delayed access to the container until Tuesday 18 July. The team was successful in: - Rectifying a chronic water storage tank leaking problem at the Martyr’s Memorial School.
- Repairing a damaged water bore for the Kongoho community and setting a solar pump onto it. This provided the first clean water ever for approximately 400 people.
- Sinking 3 water bores at Embessa. Two of these were dug to water level, the third was abandoned due to limited on-site time available. One of the two successful bores was fitted with a hand pump, the other was left for the Embessa community to complete. This project provided the first clean water ever to approximately 1000 Embessa villagers.
- Provided a commercial rotary hoe to the Embessa community to assist in sustainable crop growing.
- Several potential project sites were visited; six locations were identified as having potential to sink bores and fit hand pumps, one site was identified as having potential for a surface pump and four school sites were identified as having potential for water provision projects.
At this week’s meeting Tony introduced Moses Pulop, a PNG national from Komea, a village in the Southern Highlands of PNG now living in Melbourne. Moses was orphaned at a very young age and shunned by his community. Moses had to live by his wits and often had to live on food scraps and steal to survive. Moses was adopted by two missionaries and came to Australia as a young boy. Moses is now university educated and works as a cardiac nurse. Moses has contacted Tony in the hope that our club can help him achieve clean water for his village. Other integral team members - Richard and Ewen addressed the meeting after speakers Tony and Moses. Mal also thanked Tony for his dedication and the privilege to accompany the group to PNG. President Trevor concluded the evening by thanking all our guests and presented Tony with a mosquito net certificate in recognition of all his endeavours on the PNG Project. Bore No. 1 - Fresh Water!!! |
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