Submitted by: Dr. Honora Norton, RCSL Public Image Director Rotary International’s Rotary Magazine with over 1.2 worldwide subscribers recently featured the Rotary Club of Gilbert and Rotary Club of Sun Lakes as champions of a Navajo Water Project. The 10-page article written by Geoffrey Johnson with photography by Julia Rendleman was featured in the Rotary Magazine’s July 2022 issue. In 2016, members of the Rotary Club of Gilbert attended a water conference in Phoenix. At the conference, a representative from DigDeep explained the organization’s work in the Navajo Nation, and how it was bringing water to the people living there. DigDeep delivers a 1,200-gallon cistern, which is then buried outside the home. Technicians plumb a sink, water heater, filter and drain line; where families don’t have electricity hookup, a solar panel is installed with battery array and electrical hookup to provide electricity to power the pump and lights. A tanker truck arrives and fills the cistern with clean water through an above ground valve and the homeowner receives training to operate, maintain and repair the system, as well as a number to call should problems incur. All this enfolds over 24 hours. The Gilbert Rotarians learned that each installation costs $4,500. The Gilbert Rotarians worked with RI District 4185 in Mexico to co-sponsor a global grant to support the Navajo Water Project. With the assistance of RI Arizona District 5495 Rotary Foundation Chair and RI R-Club Southwest, Jim Bissonett, a global grant was initiated. Per Mr. Bissonett, the real story is the Navajo Nation is in our backyard. He recalled the eagerness of Gary Whiting of the Rotary Club of Sun Lakes (RCSL), Sun Lakes resident and a past RI District Governor – saying RCSL wants to do a project like that! In May 2018, the Rotary Club of Gilbert and its international Partner in Mexico, the Rotary Club of San Andres Cholula, launched the 1st phase of Navajo Water Project. Backed by a $78,000 RI Global Grant, they provided home water systems for 18 families – the 64 individuals near Thoreau, NM. A year later, RCSL finally got its chance when the club partnered with the Rotary Club of Brantford-Sunrise, Ontario and completed the second phase; also set near Thoreau, NM, the project provided home water systems to 33 families – that’s more than 100 individuals with the support of a $144,000 global grant. |