3rd World, Human Powered, Water Well Drill

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Year:

2010-2011

Abstract:

Tanzania is one of many countries in the world that suffers from extreme poverty. Much of the poverty and hardships in third world countries can be attributed to the lack of clean water. Because of the lack of drilled water wells, most of the people in these nations are forced to drink contaminated water that is not fit for human consumption. Unfortunately, many villages lack clean water because there is not an effective method of drilling deep wells to reach the clean water. The available Drill rigs are typically 9-ton trucks that are too big to reach most of the villages and the cost to drill wells in the areas that they can reach is too expensive.

WHOlives.org is a non-profit organization that focuses on providing clean water, better health, and more opportunities to the people of third world countries. WHOlives.org commissioned BYU Capstone Team 31 to develop a human-powered borehole drill that would drill a well deep enough and be portable enough to provide clean drinking water to virtually any third world village at an affordable cost.

The team successfully designed a human-powered borehole drill that was tested and implemented in Tanzania. In order to reach potable water, the borehole can reach depths of 250 feet through various soil formations. To manage cost, the drill uses standard drill pipe and bits and operates strictly on human power. The actual drill created by the Capstone team cost approximately $2,000 to manufacture and $4,000 to purchase the standard drilling components. The majority of manufacturing can be performed in third world countries. The entire drilling rig can also be easily disassembled and transported in the bed of a regular sized truck or on a small trailer for transportation to remote areas of the globe. Through the use of the “Village Drill”, clean water can be brought to millions of villagers in the poor and remote areas of our world.