Rotarians have been working in Gondar, Ethiopia to help bring clean water resources to this Corvallis sister city, explained Richard Raymond at the Greater Corvallis Rotary Club’s weekly meeting.
Raymond described a project to drill four wells in the Gondar community that was led and funded by Rotarians. The project, which costs approximately $16,000 per well, has brought fresh water to families and schools that had no ground water. Three of the above-ground wells have been completed.
The most recent well, Raymond described, was a tremendous effort that required digging an extra five to 10 meters to reach water. It also required an additional $8,000 in cost, but the end result was “celebratory” said Raymond. “Residents were gathering and doing happy dances at the first site of moisture from these wells,” he added.
Gondar is a Corvallis sister city of approximately 300,000 in population. It is a hilly terrain, 7500 feet in elevation. Erosion is a common environmental problem. The sister-city relationship between Gondar and Corvallis started in 2005.
