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1 April, 2016 15:59
James Prosser, who works in our Control Room, took his family – wife Rachel and their sons Luke, 16 and Jacob, 12 – to Cambodia to build a water well in a remote village.
The idea was sparked three years ago when James and Rachel were touring Cambodia on dirt bikes and met Janny Vang from Angkor Family Travels. Janny introduced them to local village life, giving James a new appreciation for clean water.
“I’ve been working in the water industry for 18 years in the UK and Australia, and I find we all take clean running water for granted. But when you meet some of the little nippers in Cambodia and learn about the high mortality rate due to preventable illnesses like dysentery from drinking contaminated water, we wanted to do something,” James said.
According to WaterAid, 4 million people in Cambodia don’t have access to safe water. It’s estimated 1000 Cambodian children die each year from diarrhoea caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation.
James sent us photos while he was away.
Wednesday, 13 April 2016
The first well is now finished and the second well is just waiting for an electric pump to arrive from Siem Reap as the hand pump would not work at it is a much deeper well. The temperature has reached up to 41 degrees, so I'm very glad the hard work is now over.
Every day the villagers have cleared more jungle near the new wells so they can plant more crops. When I first went over I thought we were just helping provide them with water to drink, bathe and wash clothes, but this has allowed the villagers to plant crops and have access to food that wouldn't have been possible without easy access to clean water.
To sum it up, it has been a complete success so long as this electric pump works! A big thanks to everyone who contributed and helped us achieve clean water for these communities.
The village children have a water fight to celebrate the new well.
No one is safe from the water fight.
James and his sons finish off building one of the wells.
The finished product.
Thursday, 30 March 2016
We are currently on day three and we have reached four metres down into the ground and found water. We intend to go to six metres tomorrow and stop there. As we have now hit water we have started inserting the concrete pipes and will continue to dig from inside the pipes to stay safe. A slow start at first but now all the locals are flocking in to help as we are becoming something of celebrities in the local community.
Things ground to a halt today as we could not keep up with the inflow of water and had to wait for a pump to arrive. My boys Luke and Jake have to fight the locals to get into the well and dig as they are having a ball. It has been extremely hot and reached 36 degrees today.
The villagers cleared a block of land in anticipation of the abundant water they will be getting so they plan to plant crops, which is a first for the village.
The concrete pipes are delivered via motorbike.
The concrete pipes are lowered into the well.
The village kids watch on while playing in the pipes.
Mud is bucketed out of the well.