Water Survival Box - Hugo Pike

Our guest speaker on 18th April was Rotarian Hugo Pike OBE from Chelwood Bridge Rotary, Somerset. Hugo gave an interesting presentation about how the club had an idea to help people in disaster areas and how that idea progressed to a large operation. In 2006 the club started to produce boxes containing water purification units and other essential equipment to send wherever there had been a disaster and water supplies had been badly polluted leaving populations unable to access drinking water. To oversee the operation the club set up its own charity with senior Rotarians as the trustees. Over a period of time links have been established with disaster organisations and the club liaises with them about the best ways to assist and to help distribute the boxes.

Hugo had brought with him sludge from the Somerset levels and various other substances which he mixed together and then demonstrated how the pumped filtration system purified the water. The resultant liquid was then offered around for sampling; testers all agreed that they could not tell the difference from our own tap water!

The Grifaid Aquafilter Family kit, manufactured in Switzerland, will convert some 100,000 litres of contaminated water and make it safe to drink. The dirty water is pumped under pressure through a micro-porous membrane in which the pores are so small that no virus or bacteria can pass through. In that way it protects against water-borne disease. This means that each member of a family of 5 can received 10 litres of clean water every day for some 5 years – or where survivors of disaster are cared for in a refugee camp the kit will give 100 people 10 litres each every day for 3 months.  During the past 12 years since the  Rotary charity was set up the club has responded to 59 disasters in 29 different countries and distributed some 14,000 Water-Survival Boxes. They estimate that taking both family units and those in refugee camp situations that some 130,000 people have benefitted from our aid in that time. 

Water Survival Box is a ‘pure’ Rotary charity and the practical work of packing boxes is by volunteers from Rotary, Inner Wheel and local school groups.

 More information can be found at www.watersurvivalbox.org