SAFE WATER FOR EVERYONE IN THE WORLD IS ON OUR GRASP
In the last 20 years, two billion people have gained access to safe drinking water in the last 20 years. However, despite this success, 783 million people continue to live without clean drinking water (about 2.5 times the population of the United States). But despite the scale of the challenge, getting water to every person on the planet is within our grasp. It’s no longer a technology issue…the solutions exist. It won’t happen overnight, but it can happen one village at a time.
Working together with the villagers of Kager, the Jubilee Village Project and Water Missions International have developed a long-term community Community Safe Water System to be implemented over the next three to four years in the village.
The Community Water Program will be overseen and managed by a 16-member Safe Water Committee (SWC), made up entirely of Kager villagers (established in 2010). The SWC is critical to the local ownership and long-term sustainability of the Community Water Program and is responsible for educating the village in safe water practices, develop and managing a fee-pay system for water usage and maintaining the entire safe water system.
The Community Safe Water System has a total cost of $100,000 (about $50 per villager for a lifetime of safe water). It is comprised of four borehole/treatment/tank/piping/tap integrated systems located in four different areas of the village. Each of these systems has four key components:
Deep Borehole and Pump
The village of Kager, while only 15 kilometers from Lake Victoria, lies in a geographic region where water wells (or boreholes as they are known in Africa) are sometimes over 500 feet deep. Boreholes this deep require a large drilling rig, truck and expert crew to drill the well. To ensure a continuous supply of water to the community, each borehole will be equipped with an electric pump. Combined, the borehole and pump is the most expensive component of the community safe water system and costs up to $25,000 for a single well and pump.
The Living Water™ Treatment System (LWTS™)
The Living Water™ Treatment System is essentially a miniature water treatment plant. This system relies on filtration and chemical disinfection for production of safe drinking water. Filtration physically removes particulate and bacteriological contaminants, while chemical disinfection neutralizes any remaining pathogens and ensures the treated water is safe to drink. This method is very effective and will provide a community with safe drinking water for many years. This system has been specifically designed to be used in a difficult environment and is ruggedly built, simple to operate, and easily maintained.
Storage Tank and Pipe System
At the heart of the community safe water system is a “hub and spoke” water distribution system with a large storage tank (10,000 gallons) serving as the hub and a series of 500-600 feet pipe runs serving as spokes to bring access to multiple locations. This will require the villagers to dig more than five miles of trenches by hand to lay and bury the pipe runs throughout the village. However, this pipe system will distribute water throughout the village and greatly reduce the walking distance of families to collect water.
Water Tap Stands
At the end of each pipe run there will be a water tap stand with multiple water taps. Because the community water system has both an electric pump and uses gravity to move the water, these water taps will be “on demand” and not require a hand pump to be at each stand.
