Nearly 700 million people on our planet lack access to safe drinking water. Every 21 seconds, a child dies of water-related disease. In the U.S. and other developed countries, we take our drinking water for granted. We turn on the tap and out comes treated, clean, and safe drinking water. And for those who want even more filtered water, they can drive to the nearest store and pick up bottles of water. In today’s special blog, we talk about how ATS teamed up with the Utah Mountain Stars Basketball Team to treat well water in a small village called Moussalabougou, which is located in Mali, Africa, enabling them sustainable clean water.
Finding the Right Village
When ATS and the Utah Mountain Stars partnered together to treat a village in Mali, they had no clue where to go. When they arrived in August, a team member spotted the small village of Moussalabougou, which has around 1,000 people, and knew it was the right place. Little did they know the impact it would have on that community.
Kirk Langston, ATS Executive Vice President of Sales, along with his son, a member of the Utah Mountain Stars basketball team, arrived in the village. They learned the village installed a pump for their well, but it had quit working 6 months prior. The people of the village had to walk a mile and a half to get water, and even that water wasn’t treated. With several other people involved in the project and with the help of local Mali citizens, they set out to work.
The Process to Delivering Sustainable Clean Water
The team installed a 3-stage filtration system that removes particulates and contaminants from the well source water to the village. The water well was 98 feet in depth and near the well, housed a 2640-gallon water tank. A solar-powered well pump and pump controller unit was installed with additional 24 volts of battery power connected directly to the controller unit to ensure 24/7 pumping operations.
Two water-level sensors were installed – one for the pump to shut off if the water table in the well were the water level to ever drop below the pump – and one to shut off the pump if the water level reached the top of the storage tank, to prevent it from overflowing. The solar panels continuously recharge the batteries connected to the control unit. ATS also installed a solar-powered UV radiation unit to disinfect the water after it passed through the filtration process.
Once water was flowing from the well through the filtration and disinfection process into the water storage tank, the final step in the process involved dosing hydrogen peroxide into the stored water to disinfect the tank and lines for 3 hours. After flushing it, the village was told to flush it again the next day.
Langston had this to say about his experience: “It was amazing to see firsthand the difference it made to the children, families, and to that community. This village has never had sustainable clean water since its existence and were accustomed to walking 1 ½ miles each day to get untreated water. We’re very humbled to be a part of this special project. We were able to get to know the community and became lifelong friends; it was indescribable how much this little village expressed their gratitude for what we did for them.”
Call ATS Innova for Sustainable Clean Water Treatment
Stewards of Humanity is not just a tagline but something ATS stands behind. Ensuring parts of the world can get sustainable clean water helps us to carry a bigger vision for helping the world. The village now has a year’s worth of treatment and ATS will continue to supply the filtration materials on an annual basis.
Special thanks go out to Mike Clayton, Utah Mountain Stars, and Harrington Plastics for contributing to the project, as well other individuals that aided in the project. ATS intends to expand its footprint across the world with more Africa projects. If you need help in drinking water treatment or would like to get involved with these humanitarian projects in the future, please contact ATS at 855.215.4600.
