Last year, Lawrence Eustace, a lawyer from Fort Frances, made his first trip to China. And while he did do some sightseeing, including climbing the Great Wall and visiting the Forbidden City, this was not a vacation.
Rather, Eustace went to China along with—and at the behest of—his friend, Norm Becker, an engineer from Windsor, Ont.
Becker had been working on a project in China for more than a year and had wanted to get Eustace involved.
They visited a number of villages in Shandong province, about 600 km southeast of Beijing, the nation’s capital. It is one of the most poverty-stricken regions of the country.
“It’s an eye-opener,” Eustace said. “These are the poorest of the poor.”
Two villages in particular, Shiwenggou and Matoudianzi, were the most important destinations on the pair’s itinerary. Becker’s plan was to set up a model drinking water system for the two villages to help alleviate some of the rampant sickness in the area.
The men soon found themselves heading up a project that will touch more than 1,000 lives.
Dr. Norbert Becker, known to his friends as Norm, owns an engineering company in Windsor, and had been encouraging local engineers to look for projects to improve living standards in their local communities.
“The legal profession has long had a history of doing pro bono work,” Becker said, adding that he thought there was no reason why engineers couldn’t follow that example.
After successfully leading a $2-million project in Essex County, Becker decided to get involved in international outreach.
“The many problems they face in the Third World, we’ve solved in Ontario. We’ve gone through tough times to get where we are,” he noted.
China was chosen, he said, because “it was the furthest and the most complicated. They have an enormous rural population—800-900 million people. Rural villages are still living in 18th-century conditions.”
Becker was determined to assemble as many people as he could—from various backgrounds—to help with the project. Eustace was among them.
Eustace couldn’t join in the first few exploratory trips because he was president of the County and District Law Presidents’ Association (CDLPA) from 2000 -02.
But once his term as president ended, he made his first trip—and was surprised by what he saw.
“Every conceived idea I had of China, it just wasn’t there,” he remarked. “There’s a mix of old and news. I could see right away why Toronto lost the Olympics to Beijing. It’s a vibrant, cosmopolitan city.”
While Beijing is a model of modernity, China’s rural villages are another matter. Not only do villagers not have running water in their homes, they have no access to clean water at all, and few have electricity.
Although the original plan was to set up a model drinking water system for the villages of Shiwenggou and Matoudianzi, after a couple of exploratory trips to the villages to make plans, it became clear the people there needed much more than clean water.
The local school buildings had no heat, despite the fact the village is located in a northern mountainous region, and had unstable concrete roofs in a region known for its seismic activity.
“It’s cold up in the mountains. The kids are sitting there shivering,” Eustace recalled.
While the two villages only have a combined population of about 1,500 people, the local medical clinic was receiving 30,000 visits a year—and was desperately short on basic supplies.
“Because of the lack of sanitation, diseases are rampant,” Becker said. “Water is the conduit to pass sickness from one person to the next.”
One of the best ways to help alleviate the pressure on the medical clinic is to establish a drinking water system to improve public health.
“The water quality is of primary concern. They literally take it out of ditches. It’s contaminated with livestock waste and human waste,” Becker said.
“There are frogs in it, and it’s green with slime,” he added.
Currently, residents must make a two-hour trip down a foot trail to get this water. They carry the water in two pails hung from a shoulder beam, which can weigh 110-120 pounds.
“They don’t even have enough water in the summer to wash the children’s faces,” Becker said.
“There is lots of precipitation, but it all runs down the mountain,” noted Eustace.
The plan is to use reservoirs to capture the rainwater and keep it in the villages. This water also will be pumped out to the fields for irrigation, using windmills.
“Windmills have never been used in China,” Becker said. “They are very useful in areas that don’t have an electrical grid. They can pump water, generate power, and compress air.”
Because there are no windmills in China, the pro bono team had to find a way to make them cheaply. They were determined not to force the villagers to purchase expensive, imported ones.
“We designed a windmill using bicycle parts,” Becker said. “Bicycles are ubiquitous in China. We take them apart and re-assemble them into a functional windmill.”
The rainwater reservoirs will be stocked with fish, for two reasons. “It gives them food, and gives them an incentive to control runoff and manure and waste.
“If the fish die, they’ll realize they’re doing something wrong,” Becker noted.
The irrigation water should make the farmers more productive, increasing their food supply, and hopefully giving them a surplus they then can sell at the market for a profit.
For this reason, the pro bono team has decided farmers should be charged for the use of irrigation water. Money collected for the use of the irrigation system then will go towards maintaining it.
Some water from the reservoirs will be stored in secondary containers, where it will be purified for drinking and hygiene use.
“It’s a simple technique used by the Romans—sand filters,” Becker said, adding this will be coupled with ultra-violet disinfection, which kills pathogens.
The inexpensive ultra-violet lights “are one of the few imported objects,” Becker said, but enough bulbs have been donated to last “the next 10 years.”
This purified water will be made available at communal water stations, which each will serve 30-40 people. These communal stations will be located uphill, so that people will walk up with empty buckets and walk downhill with full ones.
Each station also will be equipped with a shower, toilet, and laundry tub.
“Waste water will be processed through a septic tank to irrigate fields with crops that are not edible, like tobacco,” Becker said. “We’re trying to engineer this so it is truly sustainable, and provides them with enough water, but not too much.”
For the school, Becker already has received a donation of 200 desks and chairs from the separate school board in Windsor.
Eight parishes in Newfoundland, meanwhile, have volunteered to knit hats, socks, and mittens for the children going to school, who often suffer from “turnip feet.”
“It’s not frostbite, but a swelling and discoloration of the feet from the cold,” Becker said.
The school latrine, which is home to all sorts of insects, will be completely rebuilt. And the roofs on the school buildings will be replaced.
“The roofs are particularly unsuitable. We’re going to remove them because they’re unstable,” Becker said. In an earthquake, “those would come down and kill the children.”
Not only does the pro bono team plan to install solar panels on the new roofs to provide heat, they intend to build greenhouses on them. “With such a shortage of agricultural land, they should be building up, not out,” Becker remarked.
The rooftop greenhouses will collect heat for the classrooms while increasing the village food supply. “All traditional buildings, and every farmhouse, takes advantage of solar energy. They all face south,” Becker noted.
The goal of the project is to build on what the locals already have accomplished.
For the medical clinic, the team has received a large donation from a hospital in Windsor, including beds, I.V. stands, wheelchairs, and bathtubs.
“These things are basic and durable, but not up to our modern standards,” Becker said. But they are ideal for a rural clinic in China.
“There are no fancy gizmos that can’t be fixed,” he said.
In fact, they’ve received so much medical equipment, that some of it will be going to the district hospital, which also is poorly-equipped.
The team also has been given access to an old foundry now owned by the township. Here, they will teach local villagers how to make various items needed for the projects, including the windmills made of bicycle parts.
They also will be doing piping assemblies, metal fabrication, and making pre-cast concrete for the water system.
The complex is located midway between the two villages, and within one km of the township centre. “That gives us a great deal of flexibility,” Becker said.
The funds for the project all have been raised privately. They have neither received nor requested federal funding.
“We don’t want to deplete Canada’s humanitarian aid in China. And we don’t want to be restricted in our projects,” Becker explained.
Money received from federal organizations like the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) can have “quite a few strings attached. You spend more time filling out forms than doing work,” he added.
Although Becker said he understands there needs to be safeguards in place to be sure money is used appropriately, the pro bono team prefers a more direct approach.
The estimated total cost of the project is $1 million.
After having enlisted the help of some bilingual Chinese who wanted to take part in the project, Becker and his team approached the local authorities directly to set up a plan of action.
Eustace was instrumental in drafting the formal legal agreements between the pro bono project and the local government.
One of the topics of debate was the duties and tariffs on imported goods. For instance, the outreach team is planning to send five containers of donated tools and equipment to China—from basic hammers and wrenches to welders, well-drilling rigs, and a 15-ton crane.
“Because it’s a straight donation to the township, we’ll be able to bypass [the duties and tariffs],” Eustace said.
Once the project is completed, “everything will be donated to the township,” Becker said. “If any equipment is sold, all money will go to a reserve account for future water projects.”
Becker and Eustace have sent eight teams to China so far comprised of Canadians from all walks of life, including builders, teachers, medical practitioners, students, lawyers, engineers, chiropractors, nutritionists, and a hospital administrator.
“We’re trying to come in and check our prejudices and politics at the door.”
These eight trips have involved about 100 people—all donating their time and particular expertise to the project. They even are encouraged to bring their children with them.
“By doing it privately, it gives Canadians the opportunity to work with the Chinese side by side and foster goodwill. It’s a profound experience,” he said.
The program has taken along high school students and engineering students to help with field surveys and water sampling.
“It’s one of the most wonderful aspects of the project,” Becker said. “They come back and they’re 12 feet tall. It gives them an opportunity to see what engineers, doctors, and others do.”
Eustace himself has made the trip twice, and he is known among the children of the villages as “the curly one” (for his curly hair).
After almost three years of planning, equipment will start arriving in China in August—with construction beginning in September and running until March. This is the time of year when the farmers are least busy because they harvest in September and replant in March.
“Each village has committed and will supply 300 farmers,” Becker said, adding the goal is to train these men and women so they have the skills to do the work themselves.
“We don’t make them dependent on us, but independent of us,” he stressed. “They very much appreciate the approach we’ve taken.”
Once the construction is complete, the pro bono team will continue to keep an eye on the two villages.
“We are committed to going back to monitor the performance of the overall project and asses how their life has improved,” he said. “Our involvement will become less hands-on.”
Becker and Eustace also are hoping they can contribute to similar projects in the future.
“We hope the model will be replicated in other villages,” Becker said. “We will continue to do research after installation, and continue to assist and give support for the next village.”
Eustace said his role as an advisor on the project has been very rewarding.
“It’s an adventure, seeing so many new things,” he enthused. “Up in the villages, you can’t communicate in English, but you can communicate. They’re all extremely friendly.”
But the project has seen its share of obstacles, too.
“We were told at every turn, ‘You cannot do what you’re doing.’ We’re going to take a run at it,” Becker said.
If they succeed, they will vastly improve the quality of life of some 1,500 people—and possibly countless others.
“We’re bringing not just help, but hope,” Becker said.
(Fort Frances Times)
Fort Frances Times
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