With the experience of the Rotary International and The Rotary Foundation in partnering with the World Health Organization and other global groups in the effort to eradicate polio from the face of the earth, the Rotarians are reaching out to other potential partners to solve evolving challenges.

The Rotary International H2O Collaboration is a partnership between Rotary International and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) that seeks to implement water, sanitation and hygiene projects in the developing world. Formally launched last March, the “Water Alliance” was aimed to help countries achieve their Millennium Development Goals for water supply and basic sanitation. The Philippines, along with Ghana and Dominican Republic, was selected as a pilot country in Asia for this cooperation. Each pilot country will have a U$2-million budget – U$1 million from the USAID and $1 million from The Rotary Foundation through its 3-H Grants, contributions of Rotary clubs and districts and local governments and other non-governmental organizations.

In the Philippines, the Rotary steering committee headed by Past Rotary International Director Rafael “Paing” Hechanova with members, PDG Lina Aurelio, PDG Alec Huang and I have met with some of the USAID team – Joy Jochico, Roopa Karia, Allan Mesina and Boy Dulce to go over the proposals submitted by Rotary clubs and districts. Considering the reach of the USAID network, the track record of Rotary clubs and the presence of strong potential partners, the committee come up with a short list of projects with the following indicative of the type of projects:

1. A project that aims to develop a comprehensive septage collection, treatment and reuse program for a city and surrounding areas benefitting 114,000 people as well as 40,000 within a 30 kilometer radius. A pilot project on water and sewage targeting a slum area will be included.
2. A project that will improve environmental health in specific public markets in a city which dump waste water and sewage to a river. The project will develop a broad change strategy to change the behavior of citizens to reduce the amount of pollutants entering the river system.
3. A project that will construct a water supply system in a barangay located nine kilometers from the city proper in Mindanao. The barangay with a total land area of 450 hectares has a mountainous and hilly terrain.
4. A project to construct four community-based managed public water systems and promote health and sanitation in schools in barangays located in remote war-torn areas in Mindanao.

With the recent site visit of TRF staff Amanda Robertson and further discussions with the Rotary/USAID Philippine team, it is expected that approval will be received by October and subsequent implementation. It is hoped that joint projects like this will encourage more partnerships in the Philippines for dealing with the problems of poverty and underdevelopment. Business Bits. We welcome the entry of Ayala Land Inc. into the low-cost housing market with the formation of a wholly-owned subsidiary with a projected capitalization of P1 billion.