Access to water is a number one priority for every living creature — just ask these elephants! Not all water is safe for humans to drink though, and many people don’t live close enough to a source of clean and fresh water. The solution to this problem is the same one humans have been using for the past ten thousand years: digging a well.
Luckily wells today don’t have to be dug with a bone shovel — or with any shovel at all. With the advent of wet borehole drilling techniques, humans can drill deeper and faster than at any other time in history. The Village Drill is the first of its kind — efficient, transportable, and durable. It can drill over 150ft in depth, many times the depth that other manual drilling methods achieve. Alternative methods typically max out at 30 (auger drilling) or 60 feet (cable tooling). But why does that matter?
Communities in most dire need of dependable, nearby well water are currently reliant on surface water — streams, lakes, ponds and the like. While we see many pictures of idyllic landscapes with crystal clear water, in reality the water these communities have to rely on are inconsistent because they are subject to droughts and unsafe because of the contaminants that collect in them. Pollution, waste, and bacteria permeate the water sources that millions of people use to wash, cook, and drink every day. These bacteria cause diseases such as cholera, typhoid, and dysentery which result in the deaths of 3.4 million people every year.
When a well is only drilled to the short depths most manual drilling techniques can achieve, it might just hit the top layer of groundwater. While the very porous rock surrounding such wells can to some small extent filter out contaminants, many still contain disease causing bacteria. These shallow wells are also subject to drought just like the lakes and streams that surround them. A well that is 30-60 feet deep in most cases is not enough; it needs to go deeper.
With its pioneering design, the Village Drill is able to reach confined aquifers. The water in these aquifers has passed through many strata that have filtered out a large proportion of the contaminants found in groundwater.
With all of the problems surface water causes and the Village Drill here with a cost effective, transportable, and durable solution? Let’s leave surface water to the elephants.
