Finding Well Water in Africa
How do non-profit organizations find well water in the most arid landscapes on Earth?
Drilling for Life and Eleos Projects are two charity organizations who have a mission to provide clean well water to rural communities in East Africa and have found success after implementing AquaLocate’s GF6 technology and completing our operator training program.
Determining where groundwater is located was a guessing game for these two charities prior to using the GF6. In 2016 Drilling for Life was working to revive communities in Turkana County, Kenya, a vast arid region with huge variations in terrain and geological formations. Turkana County was also littered with failed attempts to find water. Larry Falldorf, superintendent of Drilling for Life described in a letter to Ervin Kraemer, owner of AquaLocate, “Turkana county [in Kenya] has a high rate of dry holes. Hundreds of thousands of dollars if not millions have been wasted on dry boreholes. Many people say their success rate is only 50%. I know of many dry holes drilled by others…we recently surveyed in an area where all previous drilling attempts were dry.”
Drilling boreholes to find well water is also very labor intensive and expensive. In summer 2016 Drilling for Life was at the point where they could not afford to keep digging dry holes. They are a charity-based organization that proudly “does not accept one dollar of government funds.” According to their website, their projects are funded partly through donations or as a partnership where Drilling For Life will drill the borehole and the community raises its own funds for the survey, permits and pump. This means the funds were precious and having a 50% success rate was a gamble. Larry Falldorf said, “ We used to drill dry holes at great expense. We simply cannot afford dry holes.””
Years before, Mark Purington, director of Eleos Project was having the same challenge finding well water on their own drilling projects. Ervin Kraemer, Owner of AquaLocate recalls helping him.” When Mark first contacted us, he told us that he was operating at about a 50% success rate on the drilling projects they had taken on and that they needed a better overall success rate.” Mark successfully completed AquaLocate’s training program and learned to operate the GF6. Eleos Project is now thriving at their mission to find well water in bring clean water to East Africa. Mark recommended Drilling for Life go through AquaLocate’s training program to greatly increase their success rate.
Drilling for Life superintendent Larry Falldorf took Mark’s advice and reached out to AquaLocate. Larry hoped that AquaLocate’s seismoelectric technology would offer a more accurate prediction before they drilled and raise their success rate, saving them time and money. He traveled to Texas to completed AquaLocate’s training program and learned how to operate the equipment and interpret the data to predict yield.
Larry Falldorf recently wrote to AquaLocate. He states, “since we started using the AquaLocate system we have not drilled a dry hole. At this time, we have surveyed 19 boreholes with 100% success. Not only do we find water, but it’s at the elevation predicted and the yield calculation is accurate too.”
Using the GF6, both Drilling for Life and Eleos Project have successfully located underground water even under the most challenging terrain. Turkana is a vast arid region with huge variations in terrain and geological formations. At one point Drilling For Life was determined to find water in an area covered with basalt boulders and had a layer of solid basalt close to the surface. Because of this, they were only able to drive the rods half a meter. In Larry’s letter he said, “Everything was against us, but despite the conditions we surveyed five locations the best we could.” On Monday Dec 17th they drilled the spot which had the strongest reading and a found a “generous amount of water” at the exact depth that was predicted by the GF6 Exploration. “ It does not matter where we survey, if the AquaLocate equipment indicates there is water we will strike water when we drill.”
Recently another non-profit, Maranatha Volunteers International, approached AquaLocate after seeing the results from Eleos Project and started using the GF6 for their worldwide water well projects.
AquaLocate’s mission is to continue to help people find water before they drill. We are the first company to teach new operators how to use the GF6 and associated equipment and have since trained people from around the world. We also offer assistance in interpreting data. While there is normally a fee for interpreting data, AquaLocate offers that service free of charge to all non-profits. We are always thrilled to hear from our clients and see how our technology has impacted their success rate. These charities are using the GF6 to find well water in even the most unsuitable terrain.
For more information on the GF6 Exploration Instrument and how we can help you with your water development project contact us.
Finding Well Water in Africa
How do non-profit organizations find well water in the most arid landscapes on Earth?
Drilling for Life and Eleos Projects are two charity organizations who have a mission to provide clean well water to rural communities in East Africa and have found success after implementing AquaLocate’s GF6 technology and completing our operator training program.
Determining where groundwater is located was a guessing game for these two charities prior to using the GF6. In 2016 Drilling for Life was working to revive communities in Turkana County, Kenya, a vast arid region with huge variations in terrain and geological formations. Turkana County was also littered with failed attempts to find water. Larry Falldorf, superintendent of Drilling for Life described in a letter to Ervin Kraemer, owner of AquaLocate, “Turkana county [in Kenya] has a high rate of dry holes. Hundreds of thousands of dollars if not millions have been wasted on dry boreholes. Many people say their success rate is only 50%. I know of many dry holes drilled by others…we recently surveyed in an area where all previous drilling attempts were dry.”
Drilling boreholes to find well water is also very labor intensive and expensive. In summer 2016 Drilling for Life was at the point where they could not afford to keep digging dry holes. They are a charity-based organization that proudly “does not accept one dollar of government funds.” According to their website, their projects are funded partly through donations or as a partnership where Drilling For Life will drill the borehole and the community raises its own funds for the survey, permits and pump. This means the funds were precious and having a 50% success rate was a gamble. Larry Falldorf said, “ We used to drill dry holes at great expense. We simply cannot afford dry holes.””
Years before, Mark Purington, director of Eleos Project was having the same challenge finding well water on their own drilling projects. Ervin Kraemer, Owner of AquaLocate recalls helping him.” When Mark first contacted us, he told us that he was operating at about a 50% success rate on the drilling projects they had taken on and that they needed a better overall success rate.” Mark successfully completed AquaLocate’s training program and learned to operate the GF6. Eleos Project is now thriving at their mission to find well water in bring clean water to East Africa. Mark recommended Drilling for Life go through AquaLocate’s training program to greatly increase their success rate.
Drilling for Life superintendent Larry Falldorf took Mark’s advice and reached out to AquaLocate. Larry hoped that AquaLocate’s seismoelectric technology would offer a more accurate prediction before they drilled and raise their success rate, saving them time and money. He traveled to Texas to completed AquaLocate’s training program and learned how to operate the equipment and interpret the data to predict yield.
Larry Falldorf recently wrote to AquaLocate. He states, “since we started using the AquaLocate system we have not drilled a dry hole. At this time, we have surveyed 19 boreholes with 100% success. Not only do we find water, but it’s at the elevation predicted and the yield calculation is accurate too.”
Using the GF6, both Drilling for Life and Eleos Project have successfully located underground water even under the most challenging terrain. Turkana is a vast arid region with huge variations in terrain and geological formations. At one point Drilling For Life was determined to find water in an area covered with basalt boulders and had a layer of solid basalt close to the surface. Because of this, they were only able to drive the rods half a meter. In Larry’s letter he said, “Everything was against us, but despite the conditions we surveyed five locations the best we could.” On Monday Dec 17th they drilled the spot which had the strongest reading and a found a “generous amount of water” at the exact depth that was predicted by the GF6 Exploration. “ It does not matter where we survey, if the AquaLocate equipment indicates there is water we will strike water when we drill.”
Recently another non-profit, Maranatha Volunteers International, approached AquaLocate after seeing the results from Eleos Project and started using the GF6 for their worldwide water well projects.
AquaLocate’s mission is to continue to help people find water before they drill. We are the first company to teach new operators how to use the GF6 and associated equipment and have since trained people from around the world. We also offer assistance in interpreting data. While there is normally a fee for interpreting data, AquaLocate offers that service free of charge to all non-profits. We are always thrilled to hear from our clients and see how our technology has impacted their success rate. These charities are using the GF6 to find well water in even the most unsuitable terrain.
For more information on the GF6 Exploration Instrument and how we can help you with your water development project contact us.