MEDIA RELEASE 5 March 2007

Staff help raise funds for Adagege

Water might be running on the tiny Pacific island of Adagege but the fundraising race continues for the ground-breaking project.

For the last 10 weeks most of the staff at Wide Bay Water Corporation have been donating money from their own pay cheques to the Adagege appeal.

They raised $1661 which brings the fundraising total to $20,778.60.

In December, nine people from Wide Bay Water Corporation and the Rotary Club of Hervey Bay Sunrise visited the man-made coral island of Adagege in the Solomons to build a water supply system.

The island was made by the residents more than 400 years ago to protect themselves from head hunters.

It had no fresh water supply and as a result a back-breaking ritual began which was mainly undertaken by women. Every day they would row 350m across the lagoon to the mainland and walk 450m up hill to a lagoon to get water for drinking, cooking and washing.

The group from Rotary and WBW spent two weeks in the Solomons installing a solar-powered pump, stand and 800m pipe system to supply water directly to the tiny island which is about the size of two tennis courts.

Jenny Hindmarsh from Wide Bay Water was among the group and said the experience was unforgettable.

"It was an awesome life experience," she said. "These people had nothing but they would give you anything. And to see their joy of getting water. Something so simple was so incredible for them."

However, she says the volunteers still need help from the community of Hervey Bay to reach the fundraising total of $50,000.

Donations can be made at a locked box at Wide Bay Water reception, Urangan.

Donations can also be posted to RAWCS NR OAF
c/o Rotary Club of Hervey Bay Sunrise PO Box 703 Hervey Bay 4655. Please make all cheques payable to: RAWCS NR OAF (which stands for Rotary Australia World Community Service Northern Region Overseas Aid Fund.)

For more details phone Denis Heron, Wide Bay Water Corporation, on 1300 808 888.