The setting for our training is certainly
lovely. We're here in Louisville as Fall sets in. There are 84 of us at a
retreat center learning how to setup water purifiers.
The centerpieces on the tables at dinner last
night were interesting. Unappetizing, but interesting and appropriate, I guess.
Dirty water in a glass bowl
I've finished the second day of training.
Yesterday we focused on education and preparation. We began this morning with a
visit to a mock village where we had to interview the "local people" in
preparation for a purification installation. In this particular village there
was a chieftain who did not like the suggestion that the water from their lake was
unclean. We had to offer a bribe to get him to agree to let us test the water.
Apparently you run into that sort of thing in some places in the world.
The rest of the day was spent in training on
the portable purification units. Edge Outreach uses the McGuire
Purification system. It's portable, cheap, and it runs on table
salt and a 12-volt battery. These items are easily obtained in almost every part
of the world. Duvon McGuire, the inventor, was at the conference. He's a
fascinating guy. His parents were missionaries, and as a child he caught a
terrible disease from polluted water. He never forgot the experience, and as an
adult he invented this very simple and affordable way of treating water. He
hooked up with the Edge folks fairly soon after he came up with this idea, and
they've put his purification units into action all over the world.
Duvon McGuire at the tent where I was being
trained.
The system is pretty simple. The water is
chlorinated to kill bacteria. The chlorine gas comes from table salt through the
process of electrolysis. The idea is simple, but there is a fair amount of
knowledge needed to set it all up. You have to be able to put together a system
of PVC pipes and valves. The purification unit itself is pretty small; it fits
into a plastic tub. Generally you bring this unit with you and buy the barrels,
pipes, salt, and battery on location. Training a local person to run and maintain the equipment
is the most important part of this whole thing.
Okay so tonight I saw Duvon sitting on a couch,
and I asked him something I'd been wondering about? "Why go to all this trouble
to create chlorine gas and infuse it into the water? Why not just drop in a few
chlorine tablets, like you do in swimming pools?" Thirty minutes later I
retreated from the conversation, my head reeling from the chemistry and physics
in his answer. I'm so tired that I can hardly remember any of it. It comes down
to this: his method is cheaper, better, cleaner, and it doesn't require anything
that people can't get anywhere in the world. It's not easy to supply chlorine
tablets to 3rd world countries. With the McGuire system, they just need table
salt and a battery. As an interesting side note, one of the byproducts of the
process is bleach, which can be used for further disinfecting needs. Very handy
and nothing goes to waste.
Here's an astonishing thing: This
same system that we setup today can handle a tank the size of a small house. It
purifies water at a speed of about 55 gallons a minute. This simple thing can
provide water for up to 10,000 people a day! The Edge Outreach people fly in and
install this thing in a few days at no cost to the people. And all this is done
with no tax money of any kind. Just people helping people.
Putting the pipe system together.
Installing the McGuire Purifier.
Checking chlorine levels.
And here is the machine my group assembled. It
sets at an angle, but that's intentional. The angle helps the gas move through a
permeable membrane of some kind. I've decided not to ask Duvon for a more
detailed explanation.
They don't give out certification certificates,
but I actually know how to install a McGuire Purifier in a 3rd world country,
using local supplies. I'm pretty pumped about that. Tomorrow we finish up with
some presentations on pumps and filtration.
Putting all the equipment and technology aside,
I must say that it's pretty energizing to be around so many people who are
passionate about the idea of going out into the world and helping others. And I
mean helping them in a way that makes a huge impact in their lives almost
immediately. Clean water is such a basic, human need. And if you don't have it,
you suffer immediate and terrible consequences. As always, children in poor
nations suffer the most and the worst.
These are good people. They give me hope, and
just being around them is tonic for my own soul.
rlp
