In summer 2019 a team of volunteers came to Zambia to dig a well with the village drill. The trip was successful and resulted in a functioning borehole that is 33 meters deep. The drill will continue to be used in future water projects by MWB and will be leased to a contractor in the interim.
Introducing The Village Drill
Clean water is the beginning of the transformation of a society. It immediately impacts sanitation, school attendance, community health, and leads to increased farming yields. In Zambia, access to clean water is extremely limited due to the high cost of drilling wells with large mechanical drill rigs.
The Village Drill, created by the organization WHOlives.org, is a manually operated drill that requires no heavy machinery and reduces the cost of drilling to a fraction of traditional well costs. Although countless organizations work every day to bring clean water to those who need it, most do so at an unsustainable cost. The Village Drill uses a team of 4-6 operators to manually drill a well in about 3 days. The drill can be broken down into parts for easy transportation, allowing access to nearly 100% of the population where drilling is possible.
