Bellarine project cleans water in PNG

BELLARINE North Rotary Club is stepping up to continue a decades-long project delivering clean water and aid to remote Papua New Guinea (PNG) communities.

A recent visit from the Rotary Club of Warrnambool’s Tony Austin, the co-ordinator of the PNG Projects Group, inspired the Bellarine chapter to pool its own expertise and resources and seek out new members to help in the campaign to improve quality of life for Australia’s Pacific neighbour.

The Rotary PNG Projects Group (PNGPG) was first overseen by Geelong member Anton Van Doornik in the 1990.

Through his work co-ordinating several humanitarian aid projects in the country, Mr Van Doornik managed to establish reliable contacts, set up a logistic protocol for container shipping, organise a base for volunteers to work from and provide two Toyota LandCruisers for the teams to move around in.

A deterioration of Mr Van Doornik’s health in 2017 prevented him from returning to the country, he later died in 2020, after which responsibility of the Water Provision Project was assumed by the Rotary Club of Warrnambool’s Tony Austin.

Building on the networks and contacts established by Mr Van Doornik, Mr Austin and the region’s Rotary groups are now focused on increasing the number of supporting clubs and organisations into what is now generally known as the PNGPG.

For its part, Bellarine North Rotary is now on the hunt for people with expertise in these areas to assist with the projects and join its team.

The primary goal is assisting remote villages and communities get access to clean water by providing water bores/wells and pumps and where it can support to PNG communities with health and education requirements and in need of general aid.

To do this, it intends to build a purpose-built well drilling machine to put down a bore in a day compared to the three to four days it now takes digging by hand and using hand-driven augers.

It’s also seeking new vehicles for the project after the two previously supplied ageing LandCruisers fell into disrepair.

For more information, email: [email protected]