With a short stroll to Commuter Comforts, ferry commuters purchasing bottled water help bring clean water miles closer to villagers in Uganda.

“Water is essential and we don’t have a problem getting clean water in the United States, but in some parts of the world, it’s not easy,” said Sally Lindsley, president of the Bainbridge Island Interact Club and a junior at Bainbridge High School this fall. “Clean water makes such a big difference.

“It’s a good foundation to build off of to improve the lives of people who need it.”

The Interact Club, a Rotary service group for youths ages 14-18, has taken on a Bainbridge Island Rotary Club project that raises money to drill wells in Uganda.

Villagers in the Kaberamaido District in central Uganda often have to walk three to four miles to haul water from rivers and lakes. The water is frequently contaminated with diseases, a major cause of mortality and illness in Africa.

Interact members purchase water bottles at a discount retailer and peel off the labels replacing them with blue and gold Rotary labels which say, “Stop water borne diseases by drilling clean water wells in Uganda.” The water is resold through the popular coffee stand.

Carol Jelinek, owner of Commuter Comforts, started selling the water after Rotary had a supply left over from the Fourth of July. At $1.25 retail, the bottles are priced just 25 cents more than an average bottle.

“We’ve enjoyed selling the water. We sell cases and cases of it during the summer months,” Jelinek said. “We pay 50 cents more a bottle than wholesale, but it feels like the right thing to do.”

Interact raises about 50 cents per bottle, with half of the proceeds going to drilling wells and the other half to other projects.

Peter Emau, a native of the Kaberamaido District in Uganda, originally approached Rotary for printing a small number of schoolbooks in native Ugandan languages. The well project sprang from a trip by Rotarians to Uganda in 2001 to deliver the books.

Joanne Croghan, president of the Bainbridge Island Rotary Club, was one visitor.

“We were focusing on literacy,” she recalled thinking, “(but) if literacy is to succeed, people need a basic level of health to study and go to school. Maybe we’ve put the cart before the horse?”

When Rotary offered to help, Emau said, “I was overwhelmed. (Water) was something I would have asked for, but didn’t want to ask too much…

“To me it was a miracle. It’s something that doesn’t usually happen. Usually you ask for an amount and they cut it.”

The Rotary Club started selling the bottled water in June 2003. The St. Cecilia Youth Group held a symbolic “well walk” to recreate the daily trek of village women.

Interact, charted in December 2003, helped Rotary members peel labels and relabel the bottles at first, but eventually decided to take on the project this past January as the fledgling group did not have much time to fund-raise for a new project.

Each new Ugandan well provides water to 300 families and costs about $5,000 to drill because of an underlying layer of gneiss – a rock harder than granite – that may require drilling as deep as 90 feet through the rock. A well committee in each village is responsible for water hygiene and proper well maintenance, which can make wells last 60-100 years.

The $15,000 raised last year was leveraged with matching funds from Rotary International and Rotary District to drill 10 wells this year. The goal is to drill 80 wells, to cover the entire district of more than 100,000 people.

Emau says the well drilling is especially important this year as northern Uganda is rebuilding from armed conflict in June 2003.

“Since March, peace is coming back and people are returning to homes and rebuilding,” Emau said, “so the most immediate impact of wells is it’s going to help people settle down much quicker.”

For those in a traumatized state with little to eat, Emau says, a walk of a few miles to get water becomes a real hardship.

“Long-term, this is just going to change people’s lives for the better,” Emau said. “ People will have time to develop and time to focus on something else.”