Written by Bethany Yaffe
Environmental Engineer
Well Water Global Board of Directors

October 23 was Imagine a Day Without Water. We discussed what one-third of the global population grapples with on a daily basis: lack of access to clean water. They do not have a faucet that spouts clean water. They do not have showers, toilets, or sinks. These people are helpless as sicknesses spreads through their families and their children die from preventable diseases due to a lack of clean water.

On November 4th we discussed Spring Protection Boxes that allow families to source water from natural artisan springs that are protected from contamination and are ensured to be a clean water source.

Today, we will discuss a topic that is near and dear to my heart. This is something I work on day in and day out, and I never tire of pondering on and problem solving: water infrastructure here in our own home, the United States.

Like you,  most of my daily routines revolve around water: morning, noon, and night. Getting ready for work, enjoying my morning cup of tea or coffee, preparing and enjoying meals, and getting ready for bed, I depend on my faucet to deliver water -  but not just any water - clean, disinfected water that I can use without a second thought. The only time most people think about this resource is when it is not delivered as we expect (my mind immediately goes to Flint, Michigan).

I work as an Environmental Engineer, designing water infrastructure projects and then watching as they are built. Water treatment plants, tanks, pump stations, pipelines - the heart and arteries of American water systems - collect surface and ground water, treat that water, and deliver it to homes ready to be used, at pressures high enough to take showers, flush toilets, and even fight fires.

What goes into this process, and where does your money go when you pay for the water you use? The answer to this question varies greatly across the Unites States, but one thing is consistent: From the desert Southwest, to the rain-soaked temperate rainforests of the Pacific Northwest, to the American Heartland, we depend on water for our livelihoods. Water is essential not only for drinking and daily use, but for our food, computers, paper, clothing, cars, and the energy we use to power our lives. All of these things depend on the availability of clean water.
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I am based in the Denver Metro Area, so I will focus on the water systems I know best. Here, snow melt is collected in mountain reservoirs, which then feeds our water treatment plants and distribution systems. Denver Water (the Utility that serves 1.4 million people in the Denver Metro Area) has put together a series of videos that highlight how water moves from the mountains to our homes (see the first installment below). This is a fun way to learn about how our water makes it to our faucets, as well as the people that make this service possible. 

Once the surface water moves from mountains to the reservoirs and finally to the water treatment plants, the millions of gallons of water undergo treatment. Traditional water treatment typically takes place in three steps that makes the water safe to drink by removing particles in the water and disinfecting it. We add additional treatment steps that can remove tastes and odors as needed (these do not cause health issues but can make the water unpleasant to drink). Finally, the water is delivered to homes through miles of disinfected water lines, tanks, and pump stations. All of this happens seamlessly so we can shower on the third floor of a building, or the local Fire Departments can use water at pressures and volumes high enough to fight fires. These systems take the combined efforts of hundreds and thousands of specially trained personnel and will cost roughly $1 trillion to expand and maintain in the next 25 years across the U.S. 

We encourage you to take a look at these excellent videos put together by Denver Water. What a treasure clean water is to all people, even to those of us that often take it for granted. Also, a fun resource to check out is this interactive map put together by the USGS to see exactly where your water comes from. Clean water is the literal life source of all living things across the world. Isn't it great to hear from Bethany, who is using her education and her life to make clean water available to as many people as possible?

​Last week, we posted an article summarizing the struggles of the 2.2 billion people worldwide that do not have access to clean water. Sometimes, when we talk about numbers in the billions, it is hard to grasp what this really means. Here is a more tangible way to think about it: If you add together the populations of Africa, North America, and South America, that is roughly 2.2 billion people. These 2.2 billion people see increased infant mortality rates (roughly 1,000 children die per day due to water related issues), and diseases spread among children and adults that could be easily prevented with access to clean water. 

At Well Water Global, we see the suffering that is caused by a lack of access to clean water and we are driven to help in any way we can. In order to effectively deal with water quality issues abroad, it is important to verify that whatever solution we implement is sustainable for the area and the people that will be using the source by asking questions that include:

• how is water currently being collected (what water sources are being used, how far those sources are from users)
• what is causing the water contamination, and
• what type of project can be implemented and maintained locally?

For instance, in rural sub-Saharan Africa, due to a lack of energy networks (both electricity generation and distribution) as well as a lack of water and wastewater pipelines to collect and distribute the water and wastewater, we cannot propose solutions like the centralized water and wastewater facilities that we have in North America in urban and suburban areas.

We hear a lot about widespread droughts in the news and about the associated problems that come from a lack of water. However, in some areas, it isn’t the lack of water quantity that is an issue, but the lack of water quality. For example, the area surrounding Migori County in Southwestern Kenya—bordering Lake Victoria and running through the northern border of Tanzania—receives a good deal of rainfall, has a high groundwater table, and has a high number of artesian springs (groundwater that is forced to the surface and forms natural springs of flowing water). As such, this region does not have an issue with water quantity, but with water quality. The general population are mostly subsistence farmers (also characterized by high unemployment rates and low education rates).  Due to the high groundwater table and the relative abundance of artesian springs, locals can hand dig shallow wells that provide water for both themselves and their domesticated farm animals such as cows, chickens, goats, and dogs. Despite the abundance of water, however, these wells are open to runoff from the surrounding area, and that runoff can carry animal feces, human feces from open defecation, dirt, bacteria, and other small organisms that can cause serious diarrheal diseases, blindness, and malnutrition. Since it's often the only water available, it still must be used not only for cleaning, laundry, and dishes, but also for cooking and drinking.

In areas like this—where clean water springs from the ground only to be contaminated by stormwater runoff—a sustainable solution for the local people are spring protection boxes (see GIF above). Groundwater tends to be clean, as it runs through a natural filter of sand and rock where many contaminants are removed. Spring protection boxes are constructed by sealing the natural springs with concrete and inserting an outflow  pipe. The pressure in the artesian well forces water to flow continuously out of the pipe, giving people access to clean water that flows freely (see example diagram at right). 

​In an effort to provide the largest possible benefit to the population living in Migori County and northwest Tanzania, Well Water Global and our partners are building spring protection boxes in high traffic areas or where other water sources are scarce, allowing access to clean water for many people (most of our wells service between 200-500 people per day, as well as the animals owned by the people that visit the spring). Prior to the locations being chosen, the springs are tested for water quality and flow. The only springs that are eligible for a spring protection box are those that flow all year and have good water quality. 

This Summer, Well Water Global built two spring protection boxes, one in Kenya and the second in Tanzania. The Kenyan spring protection box was built at a girls' boarding school with around 500 pupils. Previously, the unprotected spring was used for all the water use at the school (drinking, cooking, laundry, etc.), and it was heavily contaminated. The second was built in a rural farming community in Tanzania that lacks even a central village. In this area, people would walk multiple hours each way to collect water from a dirty hand-dug spring that was roughly the size of a large hula-hoop.
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These are just two recent examples of the projects that Well Water Global has completed for those that would otherwise be drinking contaminated water.