Living Water International pumps clean water

into poor countries with pipe threader

 

Every day, Americans turn on their faucets without giving a second thought of what it would be like to live with dirty water or worse yet, no water at all. They take for granted that U.S. municipalities constantly maintain and upgrade drinking water systems. Some parts of the world are not so fortunate. Many third-world countries lack basic sanitation, and if they are lucky enough to have drinking wells, most are in poor condition. That’s where Living Water International (LWI) comes into the picture.

 

LWI is a non-profit organization in Houston, Texas, that is dedicated to providing clean water to inhabitants of third-world countries by drilling wells, repairing pumps, providing hygiene education and constructing bio-sand filters. Founded in 1990, LWI started as a missionary project to construct wells in Kenya. However, the organization was almost not started. Constructing new wells was not the fruitful venture the missionaries thought it would be. The group had a difficult time tapping into water sources around Kenya and planned to end the trip and head home to Houston. Founder Harry Westmoreland was scheduled to come home but got the day of his departure mixed up, staying longer than he was supposed to. He was drilling, and a national approached him and told Harry that he should move the drill to a nearby tree. He finally hit water, convincing him to continue the missionary’s work.

 

LWI now employs 34 full-time staff and operates in 24 countries all over the world. Since its inception, LWI has restored or constructed over 4,000 wells for over seven million people. Without this commitment, millions more would suffer from the fatal consequences of poor water conditions. The organization tends to focus more on repairing wells as it costs about $1,500 to repair a well compared to $5,000 to $10,000 to construct a new one.

 

“About 40,000 children die a month worldwide due to a lack of clean water. They get infections and diarrhea. In the Amazon, nationals don’t even give children names for the first two years of their lives because the majority of them die from bad water,” said Tim Mulville, vice president of programs, LWI.

 

The success of LWI depends on the generosity of donors through financial contributions and varying sponsorship levels. A portion of those donations goes towards the purchase of equipment and materials, such as pvc and pipe threaders. Since the organization operates on a limited budget, it can’t always buy the highest quality equipment that would more effectively and efficiently complete the job.

 

According to Jim Mohney, a program director for LWI, the organization had been struggling to make quality threads on the schedule 80, 11/4-inch pvc that is used in the construction and repairing of wells. He had always used a manual pipe threader on non-threaded plastic pipe. LWI doesn’t use metal pipe because Haitian water is corrosive and will rust the pipe, permitting water to leak through the pipe before it reaches the pump spout.

 

“It was tough to cut threads on the pvc with the manual threader. I later found out that I needed a specific die for the pvc, which I didn’t know about. Using the die improved the threads but it still wasn’t good enough. The threads weren’t consistent around the end of the pvc because I must have been pushing on some spots of the pipe differently with the threader,” stated Mohney. “Buying a power threader was too expensive because funds needed to go towards more hand tools and basic supplies.”

 

Mulville had the idea of contacting ridgid® for a donation of a power threader for use on a well repair project in Haiti. Ridgid willingly donated the Model 600 Power Drive hand-held power threader. The hand-held design is perfect for LWI volunteers, who make well repairs on site. The Model 600 features a reversible 115V or 220V universal motor and has the capacity to thread 1/8-inch to 11/4-inch pipe. Weighing only 12.5 pounds, the Model 600 is ideal for users transporting to different well locations.

 

When Mohney received the Model 600 threader in Haiti, he immediately experienced the benefits of it.

 

Mohney says that the entire process of cutting and threading the pipe is a lot quicker because of the Model 600. Before, Mohney usually had to cut the pipe, so that the pipe and the rod, which is placed inside the pipe, would fit together with the pump. The rod needs to stick out of the pipe a certain distance. If it doesn’t, then the rod can’t screw into the pump. If that’s the case, then Mohney needed to remove the pipe, add an extension to the first rod because the top rod is fitted for the pump. With the ridgid Model 600 threader, he can assemble the pipe and rod all at once, and if the pipe is longer than it should be, he simply cuts the pipe and threads it on the spot.

 

“Using the ridgid Model 600 power threader greatly reduces assemble time. It’s a much better system. We save about 30 minutes per pump on average,” said Mohney. “Because the ridgid threader was so effective, I decided to re-thread all the pieces of pipe that I manually threaded before because it cut closer tolerance threads making better fitting joints. The manual threader made less accurate threads, so the connections weren’t as tight.”

 

Mulville added, “We also run into the issue of different pipe sizes. Some of the piping that we purchase is either in metric or sae. The manual threader wasn’t capable of threading different sized pipe. The ridgid power threader has this capability, allowing us to do the job quicker and more professionally.”

The addition of the ridgid Model 600 threader complements LWI’s efforts to keep up with technology. To accurately keep track of where it repairs wells, LWI uses gps coordinates and keeps a detailed report of the repair parts used and how many volunteers worked on a well.

 

For Mohney, he most appreciates the tool’s ability to provide clean, quality threads and its ease of use, noting, “I can show anyone how to use this; it was easy to learn how to use.”

 

Mulville, too, is appreciative of the threader and the impact it has had on the organization and Haitian villages where LWI repairs wells. “With the help of the ridgid threader, we’re saving thousands of lives with clean water and teaching nationals how to use this clean water for proper health and hygiene,” said Mulville. “It’s amazing how this one tool has touched so many lives.”