The Essence of Life
Control of water resources and access to potable water will be among the major issues to confront the world this century. There’s no way to overestimate the importance of water in people’s lives. It’s necessary for cropping, livestock and basic hygiene and health.
When Eugene “Jeep” and Helen Moyer enlisted as Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) volunteers, they ended up in Managua, Nicaragua, at Covanic Academy, where the school administration—while undoubtedly pleased to see the Moyers—were praying for an engineer, or at the very least a plumber.
“No,” Jeep said, apologetically, “locksmith!”
The school fills 90 per cent of its water needs from at 200m-deep well, supplying staff homes, dormitories and the dining hall. Without it, the school would have to close and, unfortunately, the pump that drew the water from the well was unserviceable.
The difficulty was to extract the pump. First, maintenance workers tried attaching a clamp to the water pipe connected to the pump and attempted to pull it up with a chain hoist. But after pulling out two six-metre sections of pipe, the supports broke. Plumbing, pump and 150 metres of electrical cable plummeted to the well bottom. Recovery by professionals was estimated at $A30,000.
To keep the school open, a tractor carried 200-litre drums of water from a neighbouring property. Students were limited to a shower twice weekly (an unpleasant state of affairs given the tropical climate), and toilets were emptied rather than flushed.
This was the situation that confronted Jeep and Helen upon their arrival.
To assess the situation, Jeep tied a torch to a cord and lowered it down the well, peering into the gloom with a pair of binoculars! The upper end of the pipe was about 20 metres down, but there was nothing to provide purchase to pull it up. It looked hopeless, but not to an experienced locksmith. “No problem,” said Jeep.
He designed a device that could be inserted into the open end of the pipe, be expanded, then using friction grasp the pipe as it was raised. He sent the details of his device to his brother, a gunsmith who, within days, had made the pipe puller.
It was like threading a needle by remote control, but finally Jeep penetrated the opening and secured the tool. An electric winch was brought in from Costa Rica at great expense, but after raising a few sections of pipe, the winch motor died. They had to attempt to pull up the pipe manually.
The recovery team pulled and pulled and twisted until, after three hours, something gave. Gingerly they extracted the six-metre sections, one every 30 minutes. At last, in looming darkness, the final sections of crumpled pipe were pulled out.
Although the original pump still lies at the bottom of the well, a new one was relatively easily installed, along with new pipe. Without it, the school would have closed.
While we in the developed world take cheap, clean water for granted, most of the world doesn’t. ADRA has a huge water-supply program worldwide, with scores of wells sunk in Asia and Africa, and reticulation and storage systems installed in the well-watered Pacific. A project at Mount Meru, Tanzania, for example, will provide potable water for 40,000 people.
Access to fresh, pure water helps to avoid such diseases as dysentery, which afflicts many people in developing countries, but especially children, with more than two million dying from water-borne diseases each year. But even if they don’t die, as this story illustrates, the lack of it could deny them an education.
Home - Archive - Topics - Podcast - Subscribe - Special Offers - About Signs - Contact Us - Links
 |
 |
|
Copyright © 2006 Seventh-day Adventist Church (SPD) Limited ACN 093 117 689
