Availability of usable fresh water is poised to become one of the most important worldwide issues in
the coming decades. On Rotary's compass, water may very well replace Polio as our most important
humanitarian focus.

We live on a planet with a lot of water but unfortunately it's either sea water or inaccessible in the far
northern lakes, or frozen in the ice caps and glaciers. Less than 1% is really available. Lack of
accessible water leads to massive health problems in the Third World, and results in a huge tax on
human energy, particularly for the women of the world.

Over the last couple of years, the four Rotary Clubs of Oakville (now five) have joined efforts to initiate
one or more major water projects using the corporate and technical resources of Zenon, perhaps the
world leader in reverse osmosis water treatment, whose head office happens to be in Oakville.

Ralf provided a very fast-paced, detail-rich presentation combined with an excellent Power Point
presentation. Even though I missed every second word, I almost filled my notebook. To try to
reproduce all this information here would be a disservice to both Ralf and to you, the reader. I will
therefore use the technical solution available to us today and link to websites that contain the details.
The first is the Oakville Rotary "Water site" and the second is Zenon's site on the same subject and
the South African project:
http://www.rotarywatersite.com/home.html
http://www.zenon.com/about/corporate_goodwill/water_for_humanity_tzaneen.shtml

The total South African project involved a budget of more than $700,000, which was achieved using
the leveraged matching grant concepts that our Club is familiar with in our own international projects. I
was particularly interested that the T.A. Blakelock Interact Club, which our Club had a hand in creating
through our Leadership Camp and David Dean's activities, used its school year to raise funds for the
project.

The Oakville Clubs are now looking for more Clubs, such as ours, to join the project.

Answering questions, Ralf explained to Bob Simpson that desalination is not a viable solution for the
majority of the world. It is energy and capital intensive, requires ready access to the sea and then
requires massive pipelines to move the water to the end user. It is extensively used in many of the
Middle East countries such as Dubai and Saudi Arabia where money and oil is not an issue. It won't
work for the Sudan!

Incoming president Bruce McDougal thanked Ralf and commended the Oakville Clubs for this
important work.