One of the questions we regularly get asked is “How long do the filters last?”
Five years ago the partners; Disaster Aid Australia, Rotary Projects Timor Leste East, and The Rotary Club of Phillip Island and San Remo installed a SkyHydrant in the AHHA school in Dili.
Founder, Dr. Madenjit Singh, addressing the AHHA school
Recently the school has had to relocate and the original SkyHydrant relocated with them.
The New Installation
The unit, which is maintained daily, is still producing enough safe drinking water for this very large school.
The head of the school tells us that the installation is so important to the school that on the days that the regular operator is away he undertakes the daily clean himself.
The school which has both day pupils and boarders concentrates on students from disadvantaged communities and aims to improve their future prospects.
To find out more about what Disaster Aid Australia is doing in Timor Leste, and other countries why not come along to our Annual Conference in Dandenong on 19th November.
For more details about the Conference click on the below link:
Since Disaster Aid Australia introduced its ‘Donor Sponsored SkyHydrant Installations’ in 2018 a lot has happened.
Bhutan installation team at work
With our partners we have installed 116 Sponsored SkyHydrants in the Philipinnes, Bhutan, Myanmar, and now Timor Leste, in addition to units funded from our general funds.
That is over 80,000 people who now don’t have to worry about unsafe water.
Even through COVID we continued providing safe water installations.
One issue we can no longer avoid is that costs, including; materials, travel, and freight have continued to rise. (For example since the advent of COVID our freight costs have tripled!)
After five years of installations we can no longer maintain the current amount of $5,000.
$6,000 SkyHydrant Sponsorship
The DAA Board have approved an increased sponsorship amount of $6,000 for all sponsorship agreement commenced after 1st October 2023.
With a typical installation serving 700 people, and the expected life of the initial filter membranes being 10 years, we are still below the figure of $1 per person per year!
At the end of the ten years the savings that a community can make compared with bottled water should easily pay for a new filter membrane and another 10 years of life.
Cost Effective Safe Water
Disaster Aid Australia will still be delivering cost effective water projects.
Asssment and Community Consultation
The sponsorship amount as well as the cost of the SkyHydrant includes, investigation, training, consultation and the complete installation.
Thanks to DAA building up in-country partnerships this can be accomplished at a very low cost.
The alternative of buying a SkyHydrant, travel to the installation site from Australia for consultation, again for installation, and buying all the components is likely to be several thousand dollars higher.
YOU CAN MAKE A TAX DEDUCTABLE DONATION WHICH WILL HELP US DELIVER SAFE WATER FOR MORE CHILDREN IN 2023-2024.
CONTACT US AT ADMIN@DISASTERAIDAUSTRALIA.ORG.AU TO FIND OUT MORE.
Our partner Balay Mindanaw continues to work hard on our Safe Water for every Child Installations.
In the last couple of weeks they have completed a further 3 installations.
The unit being formally presented below, is for the Municipality of Pagayawan, Lanao del Sur in the Bangsamoro and sponsored by the Rotary Club of Rosebud Rye.
It will be located at the Mosque of the Municipality for Barangay Ngingir.
It will provide a source of safe drinking water to the 1,827 residents of the Barangay.
Another SkyHydrant will provide safe drinking water to the 1,200 residents of Brgy. Banga in the Islamic City of Marawi, especially the 150 school children of Banga Primary School.
The third SkyHydrant is at Barangay Botud in the Municipality of Maguing in Lanao del Sur in the Bangsamoro.
It is home to about a thousand Meranaws. They used to get their drinking water straight from the river, causing diseases especially among the children.
YOU CAN MAKE A TAX DEDUCTABLE DONATION WHICH WILL HELP US DELIVER SAFE WATER FOR MORE CHILDREN IN 2023-2024.
CONTACT US AT ADMIN@DISASTERAIDAUSTRALIA.ORG.AU TO FIND OUT MORE.
DAA Director John O’Reilly has recently been in Timor Leste to see the installation of two SkyHydrants.
John and Stevie O’Reilly with the children of Quelicai
The first unit was for the community of Quelicai with the unit dedicated to the memory of John’s Grandson, Jameson Stewart O’Reilly.
The second unit, donated by the Rotary Club of Phillip Island and San Remo, was for the Don Bosco Orphanage at Venilale.
Children at Venilale enjoying the safe water
Both installation were carried out by our partner Max Bird, of Rotary Projects Timor-Leste East.
If you would like to sponsor a Disaster Aid Australia SkyHydrant in Timor Leste contact us at admin@disasteraidaustralia.org.au. or for general donations click on the link below:
