Eduvu Water Project – RAWCS No. 06/2008-2009
The village of Eduvu is located on the Brown River approximately one and a half hours drive north of Port Moresby. Alongside the village is a saw mill that employs many of the villagers. The village women have to walk several hundred metres to the river to get water for drinking, cooking and for washing and bathing. Often, particularly during the wet season, the river is heavily contaminated due to the mill’s activities and the water is unfit for drinking. An alternative water supply is located several hundred metres into the hills where a stream commences and provides good drinking water. Both sources of water involve a considerable walk up steep terrain with heavy water containers to carry. The provision of piped water to the village would make their lives so much easier.
In mid May 2009 two Rotarians from the Townsville Sunrise Club, Dave Roderick and Doug Pollock flew to Port Moresby, picked up the plumbing supplies from Lohberger Industries and proceeded up to the village. A small dam was constructed at a suitable location towards the headwaters of the creek. This dam housed the inlet to the system and provided a suitable head to provide pressure to the gravity fed system. Approximately six to seven hundred metres of poly pipe was run out from the dam, and down the creek towards the village. There was a final climb up to the village where the outlets, two taps and a shower were to be located. In the process of installing the pipe and building the dam we were helped by the local villagers. They were responsible for mixing concrete, laying out the pipe, collecting dam building materials and under supervision joining pipe and helping to assemble the tap and shower/tap fittings.
A subsequent visit to the village was made in mid June 2009 to get the water flowing and complete the project. On arrival at Eduvu we were very pleasantly surprised to see that the job had been completed and in fact the water was flowing. It had taken a few days for the water to flow through the pipe and this was possibly helped by recent rain which had increased the flow of water in the creek and filled up the dam, increasing the head and pushing the water through the pipe. The villagers had completed the installation of the pipe into the village and erected the tap and tap/shower assemblies. They had also concreted around the taps to provide a clean area for standing and washing/collecting water.
It was particularly satisfying to see the project completed and that the villagers had been confident enough to finish off the job unsupervised. The lessons they had been taught had been remembered, and are skills that they can use on other water projects they may wish to implement in the area.
In undertaking and completing this project thanks must go to the following: Dave Roderick and John Coope – Rotary Club of Townsville Sunrise; Ern Lohberger and Ron Seddon – Rotary Club of Port Moresby; Rotary Against Malaria for use of their truck and a driver to transport personnel and supplies from Port Moresby to Eduvu; Peter Davis – Rotary Club of Orange who identified and scoped the project; The Rotary Club of Boroko, PNG; This was a RAWCS Project and thanks go to Ailsa Hay for her help in registering the project; The Australian High Commission for their funding of the plumbing supplies through a HOMDAP Grant & Most importantly thanks must go to the villagers of Eduvu for their help with the project and their hospitality in accommodating us one night.