Hedaru Water Project Nears Completion

In February, 2010, ETI Board Member and Project Manager Sheri Krumm visited the village of Hedaru to celebrate the completion of the next to last step in a three year water project.  The project is a collaboration between the ETI, the Hedaru Village Water Committee, Rotary International, and St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church in Ames, Iowa.  It includes a catchment system high in the mountains at the source of the spring that evenly divides the water between mountain farmers, and the villagers below, as well as construction of a 20,000 gallon storage tank.  Most recently, the villagers installed 7 km of pipe to connect the whole system together, and today, water is flowing to 20,000 people in Hedaru who have not had adequate water in over 10 years!

The next and final step in this $125,000 project will be the repair and extension of the village distribution system, including the construction of twenty-two distribution points.  This step is sponsored by a Rotary Humanitarian Grant between the Ames Rotary Club and the Same Rotary Club in Tanzania.

This project is an excellent example of the collaborative nature of the work ETI does.  The success of the project was due to the strong leadership of Mr. Clement Ngoka and the Hedaru Village Water Committee, but would not have been possible without the help of many different organization and individuals.  Ownership and control of the system will be officially be given to the Village of Hedaru in August of 2010.