David Powell, Mark Mills and Ken Wood are not your typical tradesmen. These hardworking small business owners are making an extraordinary contribution to people in serious need. They are using their expertise to bring clean, safe drinking water to some of the most impoverished and remote locations in the world. We asked David Powell to tell us about his latest project and the organization he co-founded - Wells For Life International
David, how did you get into drilling wells for a living?
It's a family business. My father started Edward Powell Pump and Wells Drilling in 1979. When I graduated from Penn State with a business degree, I didn't plan on going into the business. But we were in the midst of a severe recession and by default I went into the family business, and stuck around. When my father retired I took over the business. So it's a family business that's gone at least one more generation.
How has drilling technology changed over the years?
The fundamentals of drilling hasn't changed all that much. What has changed over the years is the size, capacity and the efficiency of the drilling rigs, as well as the downhole tools that we use to drill through the rock. We use very high CFM air compressors with high pressure to be able to drill through the rocks. The downhole hammers and the carbide bits that we use have gotten better and better over the years. So we can drill 300, 400, 500 feet in solid rock today, where 20 years ago if you could drill 100 feet you were really doing something. So the equipment has gotten much more efficient over the years.
You co-founded Wells For Life to get clean, safe drinking water to impoverished areas of the world. What inspired you to get involved?
Being in the water business I know that a lot of the world does not have clean water. The poor areas of the world cannot afford to import the technology and the cost involved in drilling water wells. I'm a person who likes to give back. I feel I've been very blessed having the skills I have and making a good living. I just really wanted to try and help people that didn't have the luxury of clean water. So in 2004 a buddy of mine, Mark Mills, who operates Water System Services in Ocean View, Delaware, got together and formed Wells for Life with the idea to go to parts of the world that did not have good, clean drinking water.
Mark is a mud rotary driller, he drills in the soft formations and is very skilled at that. I'm a rock driller, by forming this partnership, we can handle any type of drilling formation that we may come upon. We realized, by using our skills, we could make a difference and really contribute in a positive way.
How do you gather the people that it takes to put a project like this together?
Typically it's just been Mark and I. Our first projects were in Morocco, which is in North Africa. The reason we picked North Africa and specifically Morocco was because Mark's brother was living in Casablanca at the time. He had some contact with community development groups in Morocco working with people in need. We try to maximize the skills of the people in the area. We are challenged with language and cultural issues, we need help finding our way around and of course there are always follow up issues to deal with.
Local tradesmen installing solar panels
We try to maximize or efforts by matching our capabilites with the capabilites of skilled people living in the country. We can use people that are on the ground who are working full-time on community development work with the people that need our services. We can usually partner with these groups, they can find us projects, they can help with the language barriers and governmental issues like permitting, and that kind of thing. As well as follow up after our time there is done. So that's the kind of model that we've been using these past few years.
What kind of equipment do you need to get the job done?
In Morocco drilling conditions are pretty difficult, and the government was not very easy to work with. So in Morocco we started off just sub-contracting a drilling company to actually drill some water wells for us in remote villages. There are a few companies there that are capable, and we would actually hire them to drill water wells for us in a village or an orphanage. We would fund the drilling work done by a local company and then we would come in and do the pump work. Unfortunately we found that it was costing a lot of money and a lot of time to get just a little bit done. So the model changed in Morocco. We began to concentrate on the villages that had hand dug wells and some water supply. The water supply needed to be cleaned and protected from contamination.
Before we upgraded the water system, villagers would use a rope and bucket to get water from the well. The rope would drag along the ground as they made their way to the well. As they threw the rope and bucket into the well, bacteria from the dirt and the livestock roaming around would be transferred to the water. They didn't realize that the water was being contaminated every time they dropped that bucket and rope into the well. We provided the pump needed to draw the water to the surface and would seal the water supply reducing the risk of contamination.
Hot water storage tank heated with solar panels
Over the last three years we've been working in the Tizitine region of Morocco. We partnered with schools in the area. There were seven schools that had no water and no bathroom facilities. This area of Morocco didn't have electricity so we would actually install solar pumps. We placed solar panels on top of the school. We then put the submersible solar pump in the well, capped the well, cleaned it, and then pumped water from the well to a storage tank on top of the schools. This storage tank allowed a gravity feed system to supply water to hand washing stations and bathroom facilities. By doing this we could really get a lot more done at a cheaper cost and really affect more people with that model. That's what we've been working on in Morocco for the last several years.
What do you have to do to get the permissions you need? Do you ever run into resistance from local governments?
Yeah, working in Morocco was a little bit difficult. In Morocco water is very scarce, and they are protective about anyone coming in without proper knowledge of what's going on. So they're very careful about giving permission. They really wanted to know what we were doing every step of the way. In contrast, we just opened up operations in Ghana this year where it's a lot easier to work. I still have some issues with the government, as far as getting equipment in the country and the high duties we have to pay to get our equipment in there. But in Ghana we can actually drill pretty much where we want and work where we want and however we want, which is a blessing from our standpoint. We can get a lot more done in Ghana than we could in Morocco. So we actually have been concentrating our efforts now in Ghana and really doing quite well there.
David drills in a rain storm in Ghana
How did you learn about the need in Ghana? You're still in the middle of that project, right?
Yes, we're just getting started in Ghana. Our first trip was in June; I was there again in September and plan to go back in January. Several things, I have another driller buddy of mine, Ken Wood, who owns and operates Lifetime Wells in Denton, Maryland. I've known him through trade source association meetings and things. And I'm actually kind of loosely partnered with Ken. He'd been working in Ghana for about three or four years now, doing the mud rotary work, shallow wells, and just getting an unbelievable amount of work done. He has probably outfitted about 400,000 people with water in the last four years. Just doing tremendous work. After he had the first site complete with water and he had to move to a different area, which was a consolidated rock formation and he did not have those skills. So I've been giving him a lot of equipment and traveling with him as well. I helped train Ken and his team to do consolidated rock drilling. Another group I'm working with at the same time is Africa's Hope; it's a mission group that's actually working in Ghana as well. They have an orphanage, a feeding program, a farm, prison ministries, and a water project as well. I actually gave them a big drilling rig last spring, and I've gone over with more equipment to train their guys. I've actually been working side-by-side with them as well.
You mentioned getting the big rigs over there, how do you get the equipment you need into these countries and to these remote locations?
It's not easy. The rigs, trucks and drilling equipment are just very large and cumbersome - and very expensive. We actually take them to the Port of Baltimore and put them on ships and ship them over. We have large shipping containers. I have a container leaving today as a matter of fact from the Hershey area with a lot of equipment. I've got another container scheduled to leave my shop at the end of this month. This shipment will contain small trucks and pallets of things like drill bits and tools. It's just a matter of coordinating and it's expensive to ship this stuff over there. Getting it out through customs is very expensive as well. You can try and do the non-profit route, but the paperwork – it'll sit at the port for months and months, and by the time you're all done it'll cost the same amount as just paying the duties. Once you're there and established in the country, you can start making some more contacts within the government and you can kind of get some things eased up. But they're very protective about what's coming into the country. They're looking out for people who would try to scam them. Some groups will pose as not-for-profits and then try and make money on the job. So they're being careful. We're working through that the best we can right now.
Ghana seems particularly fragile right now. As someone who's spent some time there, can you help us understand what's going on?
The government seems pretty stable. They have elections every four years like we do here. The new president's been in about two years and doing some good things. They're really getting electric to a lot of the country, so I feel it's pretty stable and I don't feel threatened at all going to Ghana. It's one of the more stable governments in Africa right now. Sadly, it's extremely poor. Some of the things I've seen there, the contaminated water the people have to drink, it just absolutely breaks my heart. So from that standpoint, I feel very comfortable going there. Again, the people are just as friendly as could be. I don't have any qualms about traveling to Ghana.
Are you traveling a distance to get to these places? Where do you stay? How does that all work?
Every site is different. It depends on how far out in the bush we are. When I'm working with Ken's group, once we hit the ground he has vehicles waiting for us. Ken's been there long enough that he has vehicles in the country. He has paid staff there now who can pick us up from the airport. It may be a three or four hour drive into the country to get to the areas we're working. Sometimes we're staying in a kind of a motel-type thing where you get a bed and a little bit of running water. We take bottled water and a lot of food with us when we're out in the bush. We have to be really careful not to get sick while we're there. Other times, I fly into Accra and I have to hop on another plane because it's a ten hour drive through extremely bad roads. I take a puddle jumper out to a fairly large town where there's an airport, and then I only have to drive an hour or two to get to the drilling site. So it really depends on where we're working. The group I'm with determines the arrangements to be made.
David checking out local water supply
Wells for Life International is doing amazing things. How can people, help support your efforts and get involved?
Our biggest need is funding. The equipment used to drill wells is very expensive just because of the nature of the work. Each well probably costs us about $3,000 to outfit. When we drill wells in Ghana by the time we drill the well and put either submersible pumps in storage tanks or install hand pumps it costs about $3,000 each. So money is the critical thing to keep these projects moving. I can't take a lot of people with me, although I do try and take a person or two just to kind of open up their vision to what it's like to live in a Third World country. It's difficult traveling, there's are lot of vaccinations required. You must take malaria medicine as well. Not to mention the cost of flights over and back. So the critical thing for us to keep these projects moving is funding. An individual can only afford to give so much; I give a lot of my time and my vacation time to travel there. We need help offsetting the cost of doing the work. About 95 to 98 percent of the money donated goes into the actual projects. Personally, I pay my own way. When I take people they're not on Wells for Life money, they have to pay their own way to go. The only expenses I really have is a little bit of postage and communications with our donors. I send newsletters and that type of thing to let them know where their money's going. But that's really our only expense right now - some accounting expenses, lawyer fees, but not much. Basically, the money we receive goes directly towards tooling or projects.
Do you have a website that our readers can visit to get more information about Wells for Life International? Can people donate to the cause?
Absolutely, the non-profit is a 5013c corp., so donations are tax deductible. At this point, we can only process checks for Wells for Life International. People interested in donating can mail their checks to 17B Mount Pleasant Drive, Aston, Pennsylvania, 19014. I'd be more than happy to talk with folks; please feel free to contact me. The website is
wfl-wellsforlife.org I try and keep it updated as best I can. On the bottom, left-hand part of the page is a place where you can download our past newsletters. That's probably the best way to really find out what we've been doing lately. It's up to date.
The Wells for Life International project is about normal people making a positive difference in the world - solving problems by sharing technology. The Questional staff would like to thank David Powell for his time and great work.
