More than promises, ACTs!
Stopover on Easter Island from 31 August to 10 September 2018.
Race for Water left Rapa Nui after an incredibly rich ten-day stopover in terms of sharing. Indeed, over 150 people were welcomed aboard the vessel, including 72 children, with a workshop presenting the Foundation’s project for the island and several conferences, which were particularly poignant on International Indigenous Women’s Day. Above all though, it was a promising stopover thanks to the signing of 3 draft agreements with the local authorities (Governor and Municipality) as well as the operator Sasipa, which manages the island’s electricity production and distribution.
These key agreements mean that a genuine process can now be set in motion to implement the high-temperature pyrolysis technology “Biogreen 300”, thus enabling the island’s plastics and household waste to be converted into energy with the ultimate aim of providing a sustainable and effective solution by 2020 for Easter Island, where today’s daily plastic pollution has a very serious impact.
Various draft agreements were signed with marked support from the local population:
The history between Rapa Nui and the Race for Water Foundation harks back to May 2015, when the first odyssey made landfall on Easter Island with the objective at the time of making an accurate analysis of the plastic pollution of our oceans. Since this time and their meeting with Mama Piru and Francis Picot, who have been battling for decades to combat plastic pollution on the island, the Foundation’s teams have maintained regular contact with the local authorities and officials in a bid to continue weighing up which solutions are best suited to dealing with the island’s problems and constraints.
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- Protocoles d’accord signés entre la Fondation R4W et la Municipalité représentée par Monsieur Petero Edmunds, maire de Rapa Nui d’une part et la Fondation et la gouverneur, Madama Tarita Alaracon d’autre part.
Photo 1 : Protocoles d’accord signés entre la Fondation R4W et la Municipalité représentée par Monsieur Petero Edmunds, maire de Rapa Nui d’une part et la Fondation et la gouverneur, Madama Tarita Alaracon d’autre part.
Photo 2 : Signature d’un accord avec la société SASIPA, productrice de l’électricité sur l’île de Pâques pour opérer la Biogreen 300, représentée par la directrice de Luz Zasso et par Patricia Edmunds, membre du directoire.
Marco Simeoni et les équipes de la Fondation Race for Water ont également effectué de nombreuses rencontres afin d’expliquer et présenter la Biogreen et ses bienfaits aux différentes organisations et institutions locales, notamment la CODEIPA (Commission de développement de l’Ile de Pâques) et le comité HONUI (Comité représentatif des 36 familles de l’île) qui soutiennent largement le programme Race for Water.
Rapa Nui For Water Committee
Saturday 8 September saw the creation of the Rapa Nui for Water committee. The latter guarantees our various undertakings with and for the local population.
The objective of this association is to continue the work on the ground that was started during the Foundation’s second stopover in Rapa Nui, with a view to the implementation of the technology to convert waste to energy as well as sustainable technologies aimed at ensuring the island’s self-sufficiency in terms of energy. Among the founding members are Pathy Hucke Hucke, head of Rapa Nui Magic Visual, an audio-visual production company for promoting Easter Island, Jérôme Amigues, a Frenchman who has settled on the island and been committed to it for several years, and also Petero Hucke Atan who was a teacher on Easter Island and is a genuine authority on the ancestral culture of Rapa Nui and Polynesia.
THE FIRST MOAI IN THE WORLD DESIGNED ENTIRELY FROM MICROPLASTICS
During this stopover, an hour-long Beach Clean-Up was organised across four pick-up sites. In this way, 528kg of waste was collected thanks to the efforts of around fifty volunteers alongside the Race for Water teams. From this collection, the world’s 1st Moai designed entirely from microplastics was created by artist Nano IKA according to an idea driven by Nicolas Yancovic and the local organisation Ka ‘Ara Conciencia Ambiental, all very committed to protecting the environment. A key witness of the disaster ravaging Easter Island, as well as all the oceans of the planet and its various coastlines, this work is now accompanying the catamaran, ambassador of the Race for Water Foundation.
NEW AMBASSADOR TO THE FOUNDATION
A Swiss singer from the canton of Valais, Marc Aymon loves nothing better than a challenge, thought-provoking confrontation, the thrill of danger and of fresh encounters. Having recorded in Nashville (USA) and collaborated with the Breton lyric writer Alexandre Varlet, as part of his latest opus, “ô Bel été” (Oh beautiful summer), Marc is tackling a series of eternal songs relating to cultural heritage with texts written between the end of the 19th century and the 1920s”.
Keen on discovery, he is a committed man. Following an encounter with Marco Simeoni, which he found inspirational, Marc Aymon has joined the big Race for Water family to spread the Foundation’s message. He was alongside us during the stopover on Easter Island.
Testimony
Marc Aymon: “My first encounter with the Race for Water Foundation was via Marco, who told me about the boat, which I’d seen in photos. However, given that I have a little Rapa Nui quality to my character, I have to touch to see! That’s why I accepted this invitation to share in the stopover on Easter Island with you. When I saw the catamaran arrive, it was incredible: there in front of me was a boat, a technological challenge: to circumnavigate the globe in five years using the wind, the sun and water! I’m still amazed today when I climb aboard. What I love about Race for Water is this notion of a challenge and accomplishment. When I get going on an artistic project, I’m not certain I’ll realise it. I think Marco shares this same fibre: he goes for it, embarks upon it and things get done!
When I met Marco, he immediately invited me to meet the Rapa Nui people, to see the Foundation’s work in the flesh and on the ground with regards to plastic and the machine which will convert it into energy. He also suggested I meet the musicians.
I notably got in contact with an internationally renowned pianist, Mahani Teave. Next, I met up with Enricé Iqua, her husband, he too an incredible musician. We got together and we rehearsed with a view to putting on a musical night before the boat set sail again. I also met percussionists, Rapa Nui people who play with horses’ jaws! I feel as if I’m on a cultural mission where all the genres blend into one. When I sing with a local musician, it’s a kind of signature, an exchange, a handshake. Each of us takes a step towards the other. Something happens which is an excellent starting point for the beginning of an adventure. That’s exactly what you do, Race for Water, at every stopover. You come along to provide a solution to the problem of plastic waste and you need the people you meet to trust in you: you need to create bonds before you can come up with a practical solution. It may take time but in the end, it works. What is happening here on Easter Island is the perfect example of this.”
Relive the video highlights of the 10-day stopover on Easter Island:
Thank you to the Municipality of Rapa Nui for your support:
