Poverty-stricken areas of Nigeria will receive fresh, clean, solar-powered water thanks to several local Rotary clubs, including Dedham and Neponset Valley Sunrise.

Groups in Westwood, Needham and Brookline joined in to raise enough money to construct a water well that club members said should be completed early next year.

The groups used their own funds, plus a $35,000 grant from the Rotary Foundation to fund the project.

"It takes the financial support of many Rotarians in local clubs here in New England, and Rotary International. They are the ones that handle the lion's share [of the cost]," said Mike Thornton, chairman of water projects for the Neponset Valley Sunrise Rotary club.

A part of Rotary's mission is to provide clean drinking water to those in the world that don't have it – and from what Thornton and other Rotarians heard, Nigeria is at the top of that list.

Teresa Tavera Thomas, a missionary and registered nurse, told Thornton that she wanted to bring clean water to the African nation. Thomas has worked with the poor on mission trips, and met countless Africans suffering from water-borne diseases, according to Thornton. Those encounters spurred her to create a non-governmental organization that would allow service groups to give funding for a water project.

"She's as close to a saint as I have ever met," Thornton said. "She has made it her life's work to go back to some of those villages and try to address some of those problems she's seen."

Since clean drinking water and literacy – two of Rotary International causes – go hand-in-hand, according to Thornton, he didn't think twice about getting involved with the project.

"I went to Honduras, and I've seen firsthand if your drinking water supply is contaminated, sickness is going to occur. Those kids become so sick, they can't go to school," Thornton said.

In Amazi, a small village in an area of Nigeria known as Umunakanu, roughly 100 families live there without proper access to portable clean water, Thornton said.

"They now can have that water," he said. "Once the well is drilled, that water will serve the entire needs of the community."

In all, the well should positively affect 2,500 people that live in the Umunakanu region, about 335 miles south of the capital city of Abuja.

"We're hoping that they have clean water by sometime in early January," said Mike Razzi, the "quarterback" of the project as Thornton called him.

The well, which will use locals to construct, will be solar-powered. Razzi said over the long-term, a solar well is the least expensive.

"We wanted to do it solar powered because it minimizes the number of moving parts that need to be repaired," said Razzi, a member of the Westwood Rotary Club.

Not only have several local Rotary clubs collaborated on the project, but Razzi has enlisted the support of a Nigerian Rotary Club. The connection to the Uturu Club will help oversight of the funds.

"They will be the eventual supervisors over the project and be sure the money is spent properly, and so on," Razzi said. 

The region needs a solar pump, because manual pumps can only be used within 100 feet of ground level. In Umunakanu, it is closer to 300 feet, which added to the cost of the project, Thornton said.

But once in place, the new water well should address a myriad of problems facing the region, Thornton said.

Pictures of African men, women and children on Thomas' website give the story of the sickness in the region due to water-borne disease.

"When you have children drink water out of water sources where women clean clothes […] it's mindboggling how sick these people can get," Thornton said.