Wells for Zoë - Water for Life

Current Events (Jan 2007)

JOHN WATERS' IRISH TIMES ARTICLE
A drop of sense in a small world
Monday, January 8, 2007

Wells for Zoë, water for life. Zoë we'll come to. "The other key words here - wells and water - are in Africa synonyms for life. Wells for Zoë is an Irish charity, established two years ago, to bring water to some of the poorest people in Malawi. It is one of a wave of Irish-run initiatives now transforming the relationship between the world's richest and poorest.

I first heard of it a month ago, days after returning from making a TV documentary about the developing relationship between Ireland and Zambia through Irish Aid. That film will be screened in April, but meanwhile my head was full of impressions from my first real immersion in Africa. Like many people in the "first" world, I had hitherto met that continent's problems with vagueness, evasions and occasional generosity, but overall regarded them as intractable and remained secretly grateful for their distance.

I returned from Zambia convinced they are neither intractable nor distant. The problems are indeed many - poverty, disease, lack of education, poor infrastructure and, always, the corruption and inefficiency that seem to make impossible any attempt to treat these problems in a systematic way. But in the communities and townships, the difficulties are more elemental. In the Zambian villages we visited, what is termed "water" is usually a most awful disease-carrying substance, between a liquid and a sludge, and everywhere people tell you that, if they had clean water, they could deal with most of their other problems themselves. The ridiculous thing is that, in many parts of Africa, the water is just a few metres under the ground, but the people lack the technologies or resources to get it up. Often all they need is a little help joining the dots of their own capacities to get started.

Something else I came away with is that Africa is not immune to changes in the wider world. New technologies - mobile phones, broadband etc - make many parts of the continent increasingly accessible to direct intervention, offering the possibility of dissolving the guilt-infested immobility of outsiders who might help if they could find a meaningful way. Hitherto, the powerlessness of the African was mirrored by the powerlessness of the European, who, other than by occasional, haphazard fits of charity, could see no role for himself. It seems unthinkable that the avoidable daily destruction of African humanity should continue while, through the spread of technology, the continent is drawn ever nearer to the developed world.

Two years ago, John Coyne and his wife Mary visited Malawi and, like others before them, were struck by the absurdity of people dying for want of something that was just a few metres under their feet. John searched around and came across a stunningly simple plastic pump that could bring water to the surface from 22 metres down. They have returned several times and have initiated a water project, Wells for Zoë, concentrating on a small number of remote areas where they have created what they hope will be lifelong relationships.

Wells for Zoë is not an aid organisation, but operates on the principle of "a hand-up not a hand-out". You might call it a sustainable development organisation. The deal is this: the village chief must donate a piece of land for use as a village garden, and there must be equal participation by men and women. When these conditions are met, Wells for Zoë supplies pumps, tools, irrigation and farming know-how, and pays the villagers to work, to enable a community to establish a commercial organic vegetable operation with which it will eventually repay the cost of the pump and materials. The first crops are due in early March and next month Wells for Zoë will establish a micro-credit, interest-free loan scheme to enable participants to jumpstart their own initiatives. A manufacturing facility will be established in Mzuzu in April to make the pumps there at a radically reduced cost. To date, the Coynes have been using their own money but Wells for Zoë is now up and running and is open for donations, volunteers and even those looking to piggy-back on the operation with a view to establishing their own initiatives (check out wellsforzoe.org). Wells for Zoë operates a principle of everyone paying their own way, so all financial resources go directly into the projects.

Half a lifetime ago, John Coyne was my science teacher in school. Today, he is one of a growing band of pioneers in a newly-forged relationship between the first and third worlds, in which two forms of powerlessness are dissolving into a virtuous cycle of mutual self-mobilisation. Africa is no longer a remote problem, but one in which we in the prosperous north can intervene on a personal basis, to create partnerships based on equality and co-operation rather than charity and condescension.

Zoë was the only daughter of Richard and Sue Cansdale. Richard is the inventor of the amazing Wells for Zoë pump. Zoë died in a motorcycle accident, aged 22. Her name, too, is now a synonym for life.

GOING, AND COMING BACK, GREEN

Over the past year we have planted 8000 Acacia seeds which are now planted out as tree seedlings. We have planted some for firewood others for construction poles and a large portion to remove our global footprint. The Acacia is a fast growing species and will help a little with deforestation, and also alleviate the hardship for women and children traveling long distances for firewood. We have also planted 1000 Moringa tree seeds, for research purposes.

The practice of planting trees is part of our village development programme, helping with soil improvement and water retention, and has the added benefit that the leaves absorb CO2.

Traveling to Malawi necessitates travel by air which makes a significant contribution to atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Carbon dioxide is, of course, also produced through the use of fossil fuels for other reasons; driving cars, travelling on public transport or heating and lighting homes.

Emissions vary from country to country. Here in Ireland , for example, each resident would need to plant about 15 trees, to absorb our annual carbon dioxide emissions. Planting trees won't eliminate global warming. However, it will make a small but significant contribution to the global environment and it will have an enormous impact on the lives of disadvantaged communities in Malawi.

It is possible to estimate your emissions and take appropriate action. For example, I am told that if I drive 12,000 miles a year in a 1.4 litre car this will produce 3.36 tonnes of CO 2 a year, which can be offset by planting five trees.

A return flight to Mzuzu from Dublin produces of 7.1 tonnes of CO 2 emission each way. You can have a carbon neutral flight by planting 10 trees. (It is assumed that the tree will mature and have a lifespan of 80 years.)

At Wells for Zoë we believe that we can offset some of the effects we are all having on climate by planting much needed trees in Malawi and trading them for our guilty consciences.

It's a win, win, win situation – Us, Malawi , and the Environment.

We are now in the process of producing Carbon Neutral luggage tags for flights. You do the flying and we'll do the planting. You pay for the tree planting and we send you the tags and plant the trees. The land is there, the seeds are there, the labour is there.

The cost: from 1.20€ per tree planted, depending on species.

Actions to reduce global warming:

1. Use fossil fuels more efficiently.

2. Plant trees when you travel at roughly the following rate:

1 tree every 2,000 miles (3200 km) by car
1 tree every 1300 miles (2000 km) by plane
1 tree every 100 gallons of gasoline
1 tree every 1000 kilowatt-hours of Electrical energy

Reference 1 – Reference 2 – Reference 3 – Reference 4

"THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A REGISTERED CHARITY IN IRELAND!" ...so I was told!

“Registered” Charities
There is no such thing as a registered charity in Ireland. There is no requirement that charities register nor is there any facility for them to do so. Some organisations do state on their notepaper that they are registered charities or give what they describe as their registered charity number. This is incorrect. The number is usually the charity number allocated by the Revenue Commissioners (CHY number) which recognises that the organisation is a charity for the purposes of the tax laws. It does not make it a “registered charity” and it does not involve the Revenue Commissioners having any supervisory role. In England and Wales, charities are obliged to register with the Charity Commissioners who exercise a supervisory role. It is accurate for these charities – some of which also operate in Ireland - to describe themselves as registered charities.

There is no register of charities available in Ireland. The Revenue Commissioners have a list of the organisations which qualify for charities tax relief and a list of those organisations which meet the conditions for tax relief on donations. These are probably the most extensive listings of charitable bodies available.
www.revenue.ie

What is a Charity?
The current legal definition of a charity derives from very old laws and a court case in the 19th century. The Charities Acts of 1961 and 1973 do not define a charity - they are concerned with particular aspects of charity activity and are only marginally relevant in the context of charities and tax.

The original legislation on which the definition of charity is based was passed in England in 1601 and applied to Ireland in 1634. The 1601 Act has an interesting list of activities which were then considered charitable, for example, the repair of bridges, ports and havens and the marriage of poor maids.

In a court case (Pemsel 1891) charities were classified under four main headings. These are the headings which are used by the Revenue Commissioners to decide to allow or not to allow tax exemption. An organisation may be recognised as eligible for tax exemption if its purposes are for one of the following:

the relief of poverty
the advancement of religion
the advancement of education
other purposes beneficial to the community

After all that our Tax Reference Number is 9579472E and our Charity Reg No. is CHY 17275.

UN REPORT SAYS MALAWI POVERTY WORSE

Poverty in Malawi is worsening according to this year's Human Development Report which has shown the country dropping from 10th to the 11th poorest nation in the world.

The report, launched yesterday in Lilongwe, ranks Malawi at position 166 out of the 177 countries of the world. Last year the country was ranked at 165. Malawi is grouped with 30 other countries as having a low human development index.

The report, whose theme is ‘Beyond Scarcity: Power, Poverty and the Global Water Crisis', further estimates that over 65 percent of the country's 12 million people live below the national poverty line of less than one US dollar (about K140) a day.

According to the report, the maternal mortality rate—which is over 1,100 per 100,000 live births, increased poor sanitation, lack of access to clean water and child mortality are some of the distressing indicators.

The report calls on countries to spend a minimum of 1 percent of their GDP on water and sanitation and ensure that water is a human right to meet the basic needs of drinking, cooking, washing and farming for food security.

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) resident representative Michael Keating said Malawi has one of the lowest life expectancy rates in the world, high dropout rates for girls, and between 27 to 30 percent of the population has no access to clean water.

He said lack of access to clean water and proper sanitation have accounted for high child mortality, affected school enrolment and increased water-borne diseases.

Keating, however, said Malawi is doing well in adult literacy.

Launching the report, Irrigation and Water Development Minister Sidik Mia said access to water supply and sanitation remain a great challenge which, he said, pose a great impediment to the socioeconomic development of the country According to Mia, only 60 percent of people have access to clean water and 27 percent to improved sanitation.

“Having such a large population without access to proper water and sanitation apart from being socially unacceptable poses impediment on the socioeconomic development of the country due to the impact this poses on health, education and agriculture, among others,” said Mia.

The minister, however, said government has placed water development among its priorities, manifested in increased budgetary allocation.

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