Bringing potable water to Thailand

By Mary-Justine Lanyon

When Armand LeSage heard the call for Rotarians to participate in a vocational training team (VTT) to Thailand to study the water available there, he signed right up.

The Lake Arrowhead resident – a member of the Mountain Sunrise Rotary Club – had worked with water for most of his professional career. On his application to be part of the team, he noted that, as a golf course superintendent, he had to deal with all types of water projects to irrigate golf courses, develop wells, create ponds, install filtration systems and install miles of drainage pipe over the years.

LeSage and four other Rotarians from District 5330 – Dan Cortese, Rotary Club of Hemet; Andrew Heim, Rialto; Nick Campbell, Palm Springs Sunup; Stephen Gale, Palm Springs Sunup – flew to Bangkok on April 27. From there they flew to Khon Kaen Province in the northeastern region of Thailand.

The team worked closely with their host, Past District Governor Sam Kasemxai of the Rotary Club of Silom Bangkok. 

As a group, they visited 15 hospitals, which serve 92,000 people. There they tested the water. None of it was potable. 

Those hospitals – which are staffed with a family practitioner and certified nurses – provide health promotion and disease control, health screenings, dental services and prenatal care. 

The VTT team worked closed with the Northeastern Thailand Water Foundation and its chair, Dr. Somsak Khun-Ngern.

Because the tap water in Thailand is contaminated with a variety of pesticides and heavy metals, none of it is drinkable. Instead, villagers have to buy bottled water. That water costs three to five Baht (0.08 to 0.14 cents) each, with each person drinking three bottles a day. The cost per household becomes very expensive. The average daily wage is $10.21.

The hospitals also have to rely on bottled water for staff and patients. Even boiling the tap water does not make it potable.

At the hospitals, the VTT team found old wells that were open on the top. “We looked down and could see ducks floating on the water,” LeSage said.

Team member Campbell, a water engineer, conducted the testing on the water at the 15 hospitals. “He was amazed the people are surviving with the water they have now,” LeSage said.

So, what is the answer?

The VTT team has created a Rotary global grant which will lead to the installing of reverse osmosis systems at the 15 hospitals they visited. 

Not only will these systems provide water to the hospitals, community members will be able to fill containers with clean, potable water for a nominal fee.

“They will pay for this water,” LeSage said, “but it will cost a third of what they are now paying for bottled water.”

The money generated by the sale of the water will pay for maintenance of the systems.

At each hospital, LeSage’s job was to find the location where the reverse osmosis system should be installed. A key element was easy access to the system for the community.

Each member of the team took little gifts with them that they presented to the folks they met. LeSage expressed his thanks to Mountains Community Hospital for the items they gave him, including a little heart-shaped pill box.

“I gave one to a little girl at one hospital,” LeSage said. “She started crying with a big smile on her face. The mother had tears in her eyes. It was the first gift anyone had ever given the little girl.”

The team visited the site of an irrigation pond that was part of a project overseen by Past District Governor and VTT Coordinator Bob Duistermars in 2019. The two farmers in the area had no water to irrigate their crops. The pond was built in an L-shape as the water will evaporate less than if it were in a circle. 

Today, LeSage said, there are 46 farmers who benefit from that pond. “Bob’s name is on a big sign there,” he said, adding they ate some mangos grown with water from that pond. “They were the best I’ve ever eaten!” he said.

While in Thailand, the VTT team met with four Rotary Clubs. “Young people are joining because they want to help out,” LeSage said.

“This trip changed my life and my thoughts about helping people,” he said.