Wirksworth Rotary Club members were already contributing to an emergency box scheme initiated by the Rotary Club of Denton, helping to fill wooden boxes of humanitarian aid which were sent to disaster areas around the world. We provide two solutions, depending on the local need. The first is the Aquabox family filter, capable of filtering water at the rate of one litre per minute, and designed to meet the needs of a typical family group. The second is a community filter – exactly the same technology, but scaled up to process up to six litres per minute, and designed for schools, clinics and community centres. Over time the original design has been refined and improved – currently the teams are assembling the Mk3 version – and in 2016 the charity was honoured with the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, the highest award a charity can receive. It is humbling to witness the efforts local people are prepared to go to, to ensure those in need get the aid they require.

John Griffith helped to set up a filter assembly operation at Aquabox’s Wirksworth depot, and teams of volunteers were recruited and trained to assemble and test the new filters. Working with the Gurkhas, Nepal Armed Police and Local Rotary clubs, aid boxes are able to be distributed to areas in need, however getting to these communities can prove challenging. We managed to send shipments to both Yemen and Syria, as well as a further shipment to Nepal,” said Roger Cassidy, chair of trustees. With the help of HiHAD, the Aquaboxes will have reached over 160 families and has the capacity to provide safe water for 1000 people.Earlier this year, Aquabox distributed 160 Aquaboxes to a refugee camp in Syria through their partner Hand in Hand for Aid (HiHAD). All our aid costs a significant amount to supply and distribute across the world and all our income is contingent upon the generosity of donors. In these circumstances, people have no choice but to collect water from available local sources, such as streams, rivers and wells. Such water is often contaminated and unsafe to drink. Water-borne diseases such as cholera will spread rapidly, and will affect particularly the more vulnerable young and older members of a community. So how does Aquabox meet the challenge of providing safe drinking water during times of crisis?

I have the next biggest Staxx as well, the 15-litre, which lives in the boot of my car and is home to all my spares, such as gas, finger stall, a set of clean pants, toilet roll, batteries and leads. Teams of aid workers carried the boxes to tents and gave instructions on how to use correctly, allowing the refugees access to clean, safe water. All of this has been funded almost entirely by donations, notably donations from Rotary clubs across the British Isles.”

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Next up, the range contains a 15l box (L: 400mm x W: 300mm x H: 186mm). In the image, you’ll see that this is the ideal box for the storage of all your bait making equipment, as well as any glugs, pop-up pots, or jars of particles. However, it would also be the ideal storage for all your cooking equipment or even your spare reel and rig pouch. All of this has been funded almost entirely by donations, notably donations from Rotary clubs across the British Isles. There is no way of knowing how many lives have been saved by Aquabox’s intervention, but it must be a huge number. Aquabox is an underground plastic module in which water is collected and stored. The aim of this system is to collect the rainwater temporarily and release it with a time delay into the sewage infrastructure, preventing flooding in urban areas. All of the Aqua luggage boxes in the range have the same external footprints and all are 400mm long by 300mm wide. This translates into internal measurements of 380mm x 280mm. The height of the box changes depending on its overall capacity. The 10l box is 110mm high, the 15l is 166mm, the 20l is 226mm, and the 30l is 310mm. Please add an additional 20mm onto the height of each box for the external measurements. Anyway, it’s proven extremely handy already and makes regular appearances while my partner is having a night of television in bed. Who says romance is dead, her watching EastEnders and me tying up a load of 360s!