Drilling has many meanings to people, for some it might mean putting up a shelf or a picture, for others it could bring connotations of the oil industry or the geotechnical surveying industry.
For some people though, drilling can mean a way to change their life forever.
The drilling I speak of, is of course water drilling; millions of people around the world don’t have access to fresh water, this causes countless deaths across the world where people suffer with dirty water. Because of this, many charities have set up with the expressed purpose of purchasing drilling equipment, going to areas without access to fresh water and drilling new wells for those people.
By taking drilling equipment and rigs out to impoverished areas and helping to install water wells with fresh water, you’re giving people a better quality of living and helping them to help themselves
Drilling For Clean Water For All
Aside from the obvious benefits of clean drinking water, having access to clean water can help prevent diarrhoea including diseases such as cholera and typhoid, which are caused by ingestion of faecal matter in the water or food supply. Diarrhoea is also a major cause of malnutrition in children. Since it can severely inhibit the intake of nutrients. Malnutrition on its own is responsible for a huge number of deaths, but on top of this, malnourished children are more susceptible to infections and have far lower odds of survival when infected.
Another area in which clean water can help is hygiene and sanitation; when people have access to a supply of fresh water, it enables people to be cleaner. Food can be prepared in clean water, eating areas can be kept cleaner and cooking equipment can be more easily cleaned. In the hygiene area however there is another side to the battle; knowledge. Here, while clean water helps to enable people to keep things cleaner, in many cases people need education in how and why to keep things clean. When combined however this can save many lives and prevent many infections including parasites such as trichuriasis and hookworms and diseases such as lymphatic filariasis, trachoma and schistosomiasis.
In essence, this means that dirty water is one of the biggest factors in the world causing death in impoverished areas and by taking drilling equipment and rigs out to these areas and helping to install water wells with fresh water, you’re giving people a better quality of living and helping them to help themselves.
This article has been contributed by guest author; Will Clevett, who writes in conjunction with Dando Drilling who make water well drilling rigs.
Let’s face it. We in the western world have all the technology that can improve lives in developing countries. And clean water is the very basic need of life. There has to be education for the people not to pollute the waterways as we are all doing. Water is a very precious commodity and sadly we all take it so much for granted pumping chemicals into waterways and wasting water by the gallons every day.
Hi Will. I share the same view. We all need and deserve clean water. People need to be aware of the importance of clean and fresh water for our life’s sake. This should really be prioritized by our respective governments to help protect their constituents from possible effects of polluted water.
Does anyone have any experience with water purifiers? I feel like they could really be of use in the developing world. I know there are “straw” based purifiers, but if they can make cheap enough water filters to purify microorganisms on a large scale, it would go a long way in solving the water contamination problem. Especially in places where it isn’t possible to drill.
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