Dear Fellow Rotarians,

I would like to supply you, as members of the Tsunami Committee, with an update of our Tsunami Relief/Rehabilitation efforts.

We had another trip to the Tsunami area on the 22-24^th April to follow up on our first visit.

There are still very large problems in the area, and we try to do what we can to help.

The largest problem is, of course, that people have no work, due to the tourist industry having collapsed, and will take some time to recover, as new hotels have to be built, where they are completely destroyed.

In the meantime, these people are receiving aid from the Government and NGO’s, in order to survive, but it leaves them little to no money.

Many people are in camps, especially in the Khao Lak area, and new housing is being built for the people who had their house registered, but everything takes time.

The situation is much worse for people who did not have registered houses, as they lived on land, which did not belong to them, although they may have lived there for a generation.

All these parent’s children are really having a hard time, and one very major problem is for the children to get clean drinking water now that their parents are at the subsistence level.

This is an area, where we are trying to help by installing Clean Drinking Water Systems in the schools.

We have also suggested to the schools, that they sell drinking water to the villagers at 1 baht or lower per litre, which will help the school with a little money, and the villagers getting very low cost clean water.

There are many more schools than you see below, and we will look at that, as we get more money donated.

The cost estimation for the Phuket area is somewhat higher, than what we have normally paid for a CDWS system, due to higher transport cost, technician travel cost etc., however, we will advise you, as the installations take place.

The projects for the Fishermen are about the best we can do to get these communities up and running, as not much we can do about the tourist related industries.

Therefore we decided to support nets and fishing boats, and will support building up of small fishing farm, when we obtain more donations.

We also visited The Kusoldharm Foundation in Phuket, on recommendation of Rtn. Hakan Skoglund, who was heavily involved in assisting Tsunami victims from day one, and have intimate knowledge of the situation on the ground.

Hakan will add to this report during this week on this subject.

The Kusoldharm Foundation in Phuket, was one of the Rescue services, which handled the carrying of the injured to the hospitals, basically without any equipment.

They have now received some equipment for one of their 8 cars from an American Rescue service, but need more.

We thought it would be a good idea to assist to upgrade their service, both for future disasters, but also for their present work, which will benefit both local people and tourists.

They will be trained by the hospitals in the area.

We decided to donate the following equipment to them:

1. 7 Long Spinal Boards (stretchers)
2. 8 sets of splints
3. 3 sets of Vacuum splints
4. 3 Sets of 400 liter Oxygen tanks
5. 3 sets of Kendrick Extrication Device (KED)
6. 3 sets of First aid kits

Estimated cost: Baht 235,000.00

We will continue this upgrading of the EMS, as we get more money donated.

Baan Pruchumpa School –

This school has 150 pupils, whose parents are basically all affected by the Tsunami in the sense that they are out of work. The majority of people in Tsunami area are employed in the tourism industry.

The school has contaminated drinking water, and with the parents out of work, they do not have money to buy drinking water for the children, as they used to do.

These children are therefore forced to drink the water available at the school resulting in ill health.

This situation is basically the same, wherever there is a school near the Tsunami area, even as much as 20 to 30 km away, as employees in the tourist industry comes from the whole area.

We have not seen one school so far, where the water was actually drinkable, so this is a serious problem.

We are donating a CDWS (clean drinking water system) to the school, which will benefit the children’s health, and also enable them to bring clean drinking water home to their parents.

Estimated Cost: Baht 120,000.00

Boat Yard on Koh Jum

The boat yard will be built on Koh Jum, but also cover Koh Boo and Koh Si Bo Yaa.

The fishing community on these Islands have about 300 boats, many damaged by the Tsunami, which they would like to repair on the spot, as they cannot afford the high cost on the mainland.

They have formed a cooperative, which will run the boat yard.

The cost will be 100,000 Baht for the Boat Yard building and a lockable tool shed, which they will build themselves, we supply the materials.

The RC of Krabi at a cost of 200,000 Baht will buy the tools, which have been specified out, for the yard.

This is a project, which not only have immediate benefit for the Tsunami affected communities, but also create work and future benefit for the community.

Cost: Baht 300,000.00

Tab Pud Witaya School –

This is another school where the pupils are affected by their parent’s unemployment due to the Tsunami.

The only drinking water here, comes out of 2 open reservoirs, which are filled during the rainy season and slowly emptied during the 6 dry months, this water is not drinking quality.

There are 1,100 pupils in this school, and this is the largest school in the area at the moment, absorbing children from about 20 km around.

This school need 2 large systems, one in the area next to the school building, where they can drink during the class interval, and one in the canteen area, where they eat 550 pupils at a time.

We think this is a good project benefiting a very large amount of children, who have no other source of clean drinking water.

Estimated Cost: Baht 450,000.00

Lanta Ratpracha Utit School –

This school’s 221 pupils come from 3 fishing villages, Baan Hua Laem 1-2-3, which you will read about below.

This school has a very serious water problem, as they only receive water from a catchment area in the mountain behind the school in the rainy season.

The school have no storage tanks, no rainwater collection system, no well, so the children have to carry drinking water from their villages, however, with the latest disaster and the villages present well run dry, there is a real difficult situation for the children.

We have tentatively decided to equip the school’s building’s with gutters for rainwater collection and, cement ring storage tanks enough to keep water for 6 months after the rainy season.

On top of that we will supply a Clean Drinking Water System.

They claim there is no water in the ground, however, in our opinion there should be, if the well is drilled in a lower area near to the school. This seems to be a catchment area for water from the mountain behind, and we have asked them to apply for a permit for a deep well.

Estimated cost: Baht 300,000.00

Baan Hua Laem Villages 1 – 2 –3 –

These 3 villages were all effected by the Tsunami, damaged houses, which for the most part have been repaired.

The major problem here was destroyed/damaged boats, and fishing nets washed away.

The boats have been taken care of by other donors.

We have agreed to donate the missing fishing nets, which amount to about 100 sets of nets, full details of each family, which will receive a net, is available. This will enable the fishermen to start making a living again.

Furthermore the water well has run dry, and they are waiting for permission to drill a deep well, after which we have promised to test the water and if unclean, supply a Clean Drinking Water System (CDWS).

They have storage system for rainwater, but not by far enough water for the village.

These villages are the ones, where the pupils of the Lanta Ratpracha Utit School come from.

Estimated cost: Baht 605,000.00

Baan Loh Yai and 5 other surrounding Villages –

They would like to have a Boat Repair yard to repair their boats damaged by the Tsunami, and for future repair of boat.

These villages have 4,700 people, 990 families and approximately 300 boats.

They are planning to make a cooperative to run the boat yard, however, we need to a somewhat more detailed plan to judge, whether this is actually feasible.

The RC of Krabi’s  incoming President’s mother lives here, so he will research this further.

Estimated cost: Baht 300,000.00

Baan Kao Tiam-Paa School –

This school has 375 pupils and a major water problem with the well water having a film on the surface and a reddish tint, undrinkable.

The situation with the children is the same as with the other schools, parents affected economically by the Tsunami.

We have agreed to supply a CDWS, subject to testing of water samples.

Estimated cost: Baht 120,000.00

Baan Nai Nong School, Krabi –

This school have 375 pupils with the same problem of parents affected by the Tsunami and lack of proper drinking water.

This school has a pond fed by an underground spring, which, however, is not clean enough for drinking.

This water is used for cleaning purpose and washing dishes at present.

The pupils have no drinking water at school at present, and as is the case in the area, many parents out of work due to the Tsunami.

We have agreed to supply a CDWS, provided the water sample can be approved.

Estimated Cost: Baht 120,000.00

Kiet Pra Chai School, Moh Baan Ta Paa Yoy, Koh Phra Thong –

The school/village are on the opposite side of the part of Koh Phra Thong, which was wiped completely out.

Read about the village on the next project.

The school has 60 pupils, 9 classes and only 2 teachers as of July onwards. The school actually had 81 pupils until the Tsunami, after which the parents of 20 pupils moved to the mainland and do not want to be fishermen any more.

Unicef has until now paid for 3 extra teachers at 10,000 Baht per teacher per month, which arrangement runs out end of June.

This village has a well, where the water moves up and down with the tide and can be pumped when it is high. The water is, however, miscoloured and gets darker and darker as the dry season progresses, until it is nearly black at the end of the dry season.

There is a reasonable chance, that we can clean this water with our CDWS reverse osmosis process, and a sample has been sent for testing. They are at the moment drinking water supplied by aid organization, but that will eventually stop.

This project has been approved subject to sample approval.

Estimated cost: Baht 100,000.00

Moh Baan Ta Paa Yoy, Koh Phra Thong –

This village have about 400 people in it, basically all fishermen.

A large amount of boats and all their fish farms were lost. A fish farm for one family consist of 6 3x3 m squares made of drums and PVC sheeting/nets.

It takes about 10 month per harvest and if everything goes well the family will make 50,000 baht, however, everything does not always go well, so they need their fishing boats.

Most of the boats for this village have already been donated and are under construction, but 9 boats of 150,000 baht each, 23 ribs size with 11.5 hp engine, are left to be donated.

We decided to donate these boats, so all the families, could get back to work.

There are still a large amount of fish farms to be donated, however, they preferred the boats first, as they would not have money to feed the fish in the farms, unless they could fish.

Estimated cost: Baht 1,350,000.00

Total outlay for above estimated at Baht 4,000,000.00

Best regards,

P.P. Ole