Water for Humanity Project

Tzaneen’s current water source

Members of the Mafarana Village (in Letsitele, Tzaneen) collecting water at a water point.

ZENON employees volunteer their time to the WFH project

2005/2006 Tzaneen, South Africa

The Initiative

ZENON’s Water for Humanity (WFH) initiative is committed to providing water treatment solutions to selected communities in need throughout the world—at no capital cost to the community. Over the past 5 years, ZENON has delivered three ‘Water for Humanity’ projects. The first took place at Bear Island, Ontario, Canada. The second, in Vietnam. ZENON’s current project is in Tzaneen, South Africa.

ZENON combines their expertise and technology with local support to provide a sustainable water treatment solution for people in underdeveloped areas of the world. With the generous support and donations provided by vendors and private investors, ZENON staff volunteer in the planning and implementation of each WFH project. This participation allows its employees to promote the organization’s humanitarian and philanthropic interests while interacting with international communities.

The Tzaneen Project

WFH's latest endeavour will provide a drinking water system to several communities surrounding the villages of Letsitele in Tzaneen, South Africa. The majority of the population in this area live in third world conditions; they have no water, no sanitation and the schooling is poor. These villages are not located in the lush valleys of the region but rather in the outlying dryer areas and, at present have extremely infrequent access to water. When they do have access, they must spend entire days at a time collecting and transporting it by foot--hauling containers full of water to their homes using wheelbarrows or by carrying them on their heads. Their most valuable asset their wheelbarrow.

The impact of their lack of water is so extensive that children are unable to attend school. The WFH installation will provide treated water availability through a 140,000 gallon-per-day ZeeWeed® Ultra Filtration system.

Two key guidelines that assist ZENON in choosing WFH locations comprise the need of the intended region, and the propensity for its sustainability within that region. There is a need in virtually every corner of the world. ZENON’s partnership with Rotary International allows us to evaluate locations in areas that have a strong Rotary base which, in time, can ensure the community’s ability to sustain the system through Rotary’s ongoing support.

Fortunately, ZENON was able to unite strengths with not only Rotary, but also with the local municipality to develop a program that would employ local operators to run the plant. In addition, an educational program is being developed by Rotary and the Municipality of Tzaneen to ensure optimal use of this finite resource.

Special Thanks To: