Annual review 2015

Dear donors, supporters and friends,

another year has passed by and it is already time to look back at how our project Water for Eritrea has been coming along during the year 2015. Your help and support is and has been vital – and we want to start by expressing our gratitude!

 

The year 2015 was marked by fund-raising activities and preparations. At the beginning of the year, we drafted together with our Eritrean partners a Project Proposal and a Memorandum of Understanding as a declaration of intent for the implementation of our project. We stated our mutual objectives and which tasks and responsibilities fall on the Eritrean and which on the German side for a successful project execution. We sent those documents to the Director General of the Water Resource Department in the capital Asmara. He coordinates all water projects in Eritrea and is therefore a central figure in the country. The signing was consequently of great importance to us, meaning the successful continuation of our project. 

At the same time, we came to the realization that the scheduled start of construction in 2015 was not feasible. The long evaluation had left us with too little time for fund-raising in such a way that our donations account was insufficient. However, we didn't want to give the Eritrean engineers and, most importantly, the population of the Begu Valley, the impression of a stagnating project. For this reason, we wanted to undertake the trip to the project region also in 2015. Thus the planning of the trip began with the goal to strengthen our local contacts, to gather additional information and to do the already financed repair work on a defective borehole, already somewhat improving the water situation. 

At the same time we planned our fund raising and looked for other options besides betterplace.org for raising donations for the dam construction. We concentrated on foundations, companies and sponsoring associations. We investigated, reached out and researched guidelines and framework conditions, which required a lot of time and perseverance. 

Alongside some rejections from foundations we were able to procure several company donations. However, we soon focused on an application to the German Foundation for Environment and Development as well as on various Rotarian Clubs in the Hamburg area, we were able to contact and visit those with cooperation from the Rotarian association Wasser ohne Grenzen e.V. 

We deepened our cooperation with the charitable association ArcheMed and the Eritrea relief organization in Germany, whose experience contributes a lot to the fund-raising and project execution. 

Seven members of our project group participated in the planned trip to Eritrea in September, at the end of the rainy season. In order to keep the expenses low and not charge the donations for the dam construction, all flights and accommodations were funded privately. The already established contacts made the organization of the journey easy. After a few days in the capital Asmara with the obligatory visits to government offices and an appointment with the Water Resource Department, the transfer to the project region with a stay in the provincial capital Keren began.

The local engineers took us from there to the Begu Valley every day and we recognised a lot of familiar faces. Even at the end of the rainy season, some of the wells were already dry. This showed us again quite plainly the distress the people are in. 

With the help of your donations we were able to execute the plan of repairing a defective drill pipe. The population started using the new water source on the very next day, which demonstrated the necessity of this measure.

Repair work at the waterhole

We also paid a visit to the Agro Technical School in Hagaz. There we were shown the efforts made to establish plants in this dry region in order to fight erosion.  

An important change in our project occurred due to the transfer of the planned site for the sand-storage dam. The local engineers encouraged us to evaluate another site in the valley. The experienced gained during the expedition in 2014 helped us carry out the geological investigation of the new site a lot more efficiently. The advantage of the new site over the previously planned is especially its strategical location that is considerably better accessible. The construction and transport of materials will benefit from this, but more importantly, it will facilitate the use of the dam. Therefore, we can for the time being do without a pipeline without risking the populations acceptance of the water reservoir. It has also been valuable to experience repeatedly how important face-to-face contact is.

Information and opinions can be communicated faster and misunderstandings can be reduced. 

After our return to Asmara we were able to meet Toni Locher from the Swiss support committee (SUKE), who has been realising projects in Eritrea for years. A Swiss reporter from TV Zürich was accompanying him, he was shooting a reportage on the current situation in Eritrea – well worth seeing, to be found at http://www.telezueri.ch/104-show-zueriserie/6977-episode-brennpunkt-eritrea#brennpunkt-eritrea-teil-1 (in german).

The travel group with the local engineers

Our Regional Group has also developed further in 2015. After the new election of our Regional Group Leader Reinhard de Lucas, four of our members attended in March a two-day TeoG-internal workshop for project leaders in Bayreuth in order to learn the systematic approach to the planning and execution of projects. 

As in the years before, we have participated in cooperation with The Regional Group Engineers without Borders in several events like the Hamburg Harbour Festival, the Altonale in the district Hamburg-Altona, the TU Summer Festival on the TU Hamburg-Harburg and the bonding fair, presenting our work to the public. In addition to this we gave a talk during the Night of Knowledge of the TU Hamburg-Harburg. We have founded a student working group in order to facilitate the cooperation with the TU Hamburg-Harburg and be more approachable to students. The bottle deposit barrels on the TU Campus are continuously filled, which creates some work for us but also some donations. 

At the end of last year we participated again in the VDI doubling campaign in December and thanks to your help we managed to make around 1,800 €. The best thing was that after the campaign was over, we received donations amounting to a similar number before the year was over – Thank you!

 

We are very much looking forward to the year 2016 and we are confident that our efforts and investments in the fund-raising will bear fruit in time to begin with the construction of the dam.

 

We will keep you up-to-date! 

Regional Group Hamburg – Technology without Borders