Water for the Poor

Readers of this blog may have been wondering what happened to all the money collected by Hastings and Rother PCT in December 2006 which was destined to buy wells in Cambodia. Good news: the money was added to by some further very generous donors, to make a grand total of $2100, which I have now given to Mr Kimchoeun, Director of CoDeC, the most trustworthy person in the whole of Cambodia! This has been enough to buy at least 7 wells for groups of households living in areas which have literally no water during the dry season. Mr KimChoeun took me to the target areas and we discussed the projects with the local people, who are, needless to say, DELIGHTED to be the beneficiaries of this aid. The wells are being built during the next few weeks, prior to the start of the rainy season.

In the photos you can see the state of the current drinking water - Mr KimChoeun has a stronger stomach than me! - and some villagers' previous attempts to dig their own wells in the porous sandy soil. One young boy got so excited that he started to dig the hole for his well within minutes of the end of the meeting with his family and neighbours! I will post a further report once all the wells are finshed and operational.