Dan Blankenau's work as a geologist and his leadership with SAM, Sustainability through Agriculture and Microenterprises, has been the perfect partnership with the Lincoln East Rotary Zambia Nutrition Program for mothers and children during their first 1,000 days of life. One of SAM's priorities is "establishing water sources that are not only adequate, but healthy, convenient, affordable, and long lasting." https://www.thesamproject.ca/. The Zambia Nutrition Program's mission is to eliminate malnutrition and stunting, requiring accessible/clean water, nutritious gardens and nutrition training via local volunteers. Both programs work alongside the local Zambian leaders, district governmental agencies and community members to achieve the goals they want for their community.
Dan expressed gratitude for past collaboration with Lincoln East Rotary and Rotary International. The successful addition of a dam, new boreholes, sand dams and more has improved the lives of many local Zambians in the rural area of Southern Zambia.
Dan outlined an exciting plan for SAM's continued work with communities in rural Zambia to have clean, accessible water.
Water Security Approach 1: Maintenance and Capacity Building, Empowering communities to repair broken down water points
Quality Spare Parts Supply Chain
Rotary sponsored spare parts shop now managed by the government
Introduced corrosion resistant parts/pumps
500 committee members, local Zambians, trained to collect user fees and coordinate maintenance.
12 Rotary sponsored water points repaired to date by committees.
3000 people restored water
Water Security Approach 2: Strategic Borehole Well Drilling, Using state of the art science to find groundwater where it is needed the most.
High impact site selection
Geophysical surveying
Borehole drilling
Water Security Approach 3: Diversifying Water Supply in Semi-Arid Africa
Step 1; Listen and learn from the community
Step 2; Research potential alternative technologies
Step 3: Pilot most promising technologies
Step 4: Sustainability and Sanitation
Dan Blankenau is the President of Great Plains Energy, Inc., an oil exploration company he founded in 2004. He is also the Co-Founder and Vice President of CGP Inc., established in 1990. CGP is an environmental consulting and contracting firm specializing in drilling wells to characterize groundwater contamination and in the design and installation of groundwater remediation systems. In 1997, he co-founded Great Plains Well Service, which installs domestic water wells.
Dan is a member and past president of the Nebraska Geologic Society. He has served as a board member for the Shallow Exploration Drilling Clinics from 2007 to 2023 and currently serves on the Department of Geosciences Alumni Advisory Board at the University of Nebraska. He is licensed as a Professional Geologist and as a Water Well Contractor.
Since 2011, Dan has served as a consultant to the East Lincoln Rotary and the SAM Project in their combined efforts to provide water to villages in the Southern Provinces of rural Zambia. Access to clean water is central to improving child health and creating agricultural and entrepreneurial opportunities. His work has included drilling new wells, evaluating potential water-catchment dams, and refurbishing existing wells. Dan plans to continue supporting these efforts, further characterizing regional aquifers, and integrating new hydrogeologic data into a centralized database to improve the success rate of future drilling projects.