Copyright © 2010 Daily Bulletin 01/08/2010

Cleaner, cheaper water on way to Tecate, Mexico- 
Rotary International & Three Valleys Water District sending equipment

By Wes Woods  II                                              
Staff Writer

Members of Rotary International and the Three Valleys Water District will install equipment that will bring clean, filtered water for underprivileged families in Mexico.

The device, as part of the Claremont Sunrise Rotary Corazon Clean Water Project, will be installed when Rotary International District 5300 clubs

build homes in Tecate, Mexico on

May 15.

Sunrise Rotary Club member Ken Rowland, who will go to Mexico in May and has helped orga­nize the building projects in the past, said the Rotary Club has about 40 members.  Working with the community development organization Corazon in Santa Ana, local Rotarians raised roofs over several homes last May at a small village just outside Tecate.

Alan Jack, Claremont Sunrise Rotary past president and Building Chairman, has helped prepare this year's home build.

Jim Johns, water operations manager for the Three Valleys Municipal Water District, said the water filtration device is called HydrAid and is made in Canada.  The device is a plastic container, about as big as a kitchen trashcan that weights about five pounds without anything inside.  When gravel and sand is added to the HydrAid with water, the weight increases to about 100 pounds, Johns said.

"By itself it is not heavy," Johns said. "You might have to replace the media or sand, when it gets fouled up, but I think the container will last a long time."

Before someone can use the water after going through the filtering process, bleach must be added.

"I tested it for them," Johns said. "I received some water from Mexico, received a filter, put one together and did some bacteriological testing at the lab to see what results we might get."

After testing and experimenting and talking with HydrAid, Johns said they were able to come up with positive results.

"Yeah, it's great. I think it helps folks that maybe don't have access to clean water. We sometimes take for granted water in the States, where we have good quality water and it won't make us sick."

Three Valleys board member Brian Bowcock said he asked Johns if he would like to volunteer after speaking with Rotary members and HydrAid officials about the project.  Bowcock said Rotary was having a hard time getting in touch with a company representative in Canada but he was able to persuade officials there for a rapid response.

"I wrote a nice letter to him and said as a fellow Canadian, because I'm Canadian too, I would appreciate a phone call."

The HydrAid device is crucial, Bowcock said.

"Some of the water they sent us for samples--it's as close to sewage water as you can get," Bowcock said. "It's literally nasty.  The only thing it didn't have in it was solids."

Bowcock said to get the water samples, he went with Ken Rowland from the Sunrise Rotary to Corazon in Santa Ana, where they had the samples brought up from Mexico.

The plan is to install the water devices in each new home built, Bowcock said.

For more information on the Claremont Sunrise Rotary, go to www.claremontsunriserotary.org

A Foray into Mexico - May 16^th, 2009

AKA Super Build 2009

I thought it appropriate that I document what turned out to be a successful multiple house build in Mexico, for those clubs that had decided to participate.

Of the 63 District 5300 Rotary Clubs, 40 clubs decided to support this project for 2009. Those clubs donated a total of $30,600 to underwrite the cost of building 4 structures - a single family home, an elementary school room, and two room additions to existing homes. That group of structures was chosen to match the available 160 Rotarians who initially volunteered for the project. Then the publicity about the Narco-crime in Mexico became rampant and we lost more Volunteers. Then, as (bad) luck would have it, the Swine Flu outbreak added to fears of traveling to Mexico and the number of Volunteers dropped to 85. By this time our partner in this endeavor, Corazon, had purchased the materials and poured the slabs for the 4 structures, even though the 85 remaining Volunteers were not enough to complete the planned 4 structures.

A compromise plan was decided. Rotarians would build the house and the school room while Corazon Building Trades Mexican Trainees would complete the two room additions, those having been funded by Rotarians.

Finally after many iterations and re-planning, the day of the build arrived. The Volunteers, mostly, though not all, Rotarians, congregate at the staging area. This area was new to all of the repeat Volunteers in that it was chosen to make our entry and exit from Mexico at Tecate as opposed to the previously used Mexican border crossing, Otay Mesa, more convenient. That change was made to lessen the concerns about any travel through the Tijuana area. This change in staging locations caused some, but minor, confusion about lodging locations etc. After 10 years of coordinating these builds it still is a marvel to me that a group of up to 220 Volunteers somehow get organized into caravans and make their way to the work sites, in Mexico. Despite all the planning - and planning is the key - it still looks like semi-organized confusion! Commemorative tee shirts were handed out and caravans formed.

Well, somehow we all got started towards Tecate, Mexico, a suburb of which, Cerra Azul, is where the builds were planned. Corazon had arranged for the Tecate Police to meet us at the border - NOT for safety's sake but for traffic control so as to keep the caravans together while traversing downtown Tecate. I learned from the Corazon Mexican office manager, "Victor", Tecate has about 350,000 residents - much larger than I had guessed. The Police made getting through Tecate very easy and once a mile or two south of Tecate we were on our own another 10  miles to the village of Cerra Azul.

To further make Volunteers feel safe we offered a "Van Option" for transportation from the staging area to the build site and back. Of course, as things go, more people elected to take the van option, many at the last moment, and we had an oversubscribed issue with the vans. (these are called, by me, "Corazon Moments" and are usually resolved with some ad hoc thinking). Finally all of the, now about 80 die hard Volunteers, arrived at the work site(s).

As you might expect, with two vans, everything needed at site #1, the house, was in Van #2 which ended up at site #2. And so the day went, shuffling support items from site #1 to site #2 and then from site #2 to site #1. At least it kept me out of the way of the real workers! Temperature was about 85* with a light breeze which seemed to keep the workers well under heat stroke level of fatigue. We had plenty of water, energy drinks and snacks to sustain the workers during the day. The school room, which is a bit less complicated than the home, was completed about 2:30 and that dedicated crew began to depart for the trip home. Oops! I forgot some of the Van #1 people were working on site #2 and could not leave until that site was complete. (such is an additional complication when using vans to carpool to and from the sites). Finally, about 4:00 PM the house was completed and the closing ceremony - the reading of a note from the family to the Rotarians and a presentation of the keys to the front door of their new home - was completed and we caravanned out of Mexico towards home.

In summary, the build while in doubt for much of the last 3 months, came off without a hitch, save for the "normal" confusion at the (new) staging area and getting the caravans organized. If you are reading this, and were a part of this rewarding project, you experienced firsthand what a group of dedicated Rotarians can accomplish. If you did not have an opportunity to experience this build it was, while being one of the most complicated projects to deal with the continuing erosion of those willing to go to Mexico, one of the most satisfying, at least for me.

An elementary school now has a class room which will be dedicated to computer leaning for middle school children and while I almost couldn't believe it, they have internet access at this site! A family has a new home and two families have room for their expanding families. 80+ Rotarians got to and from Mexico safely, without incident and have a new appreciation for what "poverty" means and how Rotarians hands-on willingness, at least in some measure, helps lessen that condition, at least a bit.

My sincere thanks and appreciation to the 40 clubs for their support. Especially to those ~ 80 Volunteer Rotarians who attended the build. This project simply would have died had we not had the funding, and the Volunteers to pull it off! I do hope even more of the District 5300 clubs will consider supporting the 2009/10 version of this project. Alan Jack, Claremont Sunrise Rotary, will be heading up next years project and I've pledged all of my support to him and I encourage you to get involved and support Alan as he takes on this project leadership role.

My personal heartfelt thanks to District Governor Gene Hernandez, Club Contactors, Alan Jack and Tom Lott and to Maria Mazzenga, of Corazon, without whose help and encouragement, I simply would have given up. Again my thanks to all of the clubs for their support, both with funding and with Volunteers, without their support there would have been no Super Build project! Bravo! To all.

Once again we demonstrated that "Rotarians do more than just write checks". We do a myriad of hands-on projects.

Ken Rowland - Coordinator/Chair District 5300 Super Build 2009

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