Importance of Mobile Water Treatment Equipment for Civil Defence or Relief Organisations
23 March 2005
The disastrous events in South East Asia have shown impressively that drinking water is a good of particular importance. When it is no longer available due to a catastrophe or a terrorist attack this will have a catastrophic effect on the survivability of the concerned people and animals.
"Lack of drinking water supply as a second catastrophe after the wave", or "First, the tsunami kills the people, and after that the infections", are subjects which can be read repeatedly in the press since December, 26.
A large-scale international relief action was started.
It became quickly obvious that the conventional equipment of many task forces was not serviceable because the systems were not able to desalinate water. Modern reverse osmosis systems were necessary to clean the wells which had become salinised by the flood wave.
Apart from the need of having such systems available on site, the transport of the material was a particular challenge. Especially in the first days after the catastrophe, the capacities for cargo material were insufficient. It was only possible to fly material to the mission areas, which could be transported by passenger aircraft.
In this case, Kärcher used especially the WTC 500 RO drinking water purification system. The system has the exact dimensions of a Europallet and a weight of less than 200 kg including all parts needed for operation.
Such a compact unit produces up to 15,000 l drinking water per day – even from sea water. This is sufficient to supply up to 1,500 people per day with clean, safe drinking water.
The systems could be transported to the needy on site without any special measures using the smallest vehicles or helicopters. On the Maldives, the systems were mounted on boats. This way, it was possible to take the water directly from the sea close to every island in order to produce drinking water, and the task forces were able to supply the numerous small islands effectively with drinking water.
In addition, systems of the type WTC 1600 and 6000 were used. These large systems produce up to 240,000l drinking water per day. In fact, they are small waterworks which are capable of supplying whole villages with drinking water.
The Kärcher systems produced up to 900,000 l drinking water per day, which was a great help to all concerned people.
Due to the fact that this technology has been integrated into Kärcher’s complete product range of mobile drinking water purification systems for many years, partners who had focused
on Kärcher technologies in recent years were able to provide effective assistance immediately.
A long list of task forces using this technology can be mentioned. In total, more than 40 Kärcher WTC systems are in use in the catastrophe area, among them systems from Germany, Luxemburg, Belgium, Denmark, Portugal, Italy, Singapore and Australia.
In addition to the donation of four water purification systems, the company provided assistance in the form of supporting the task forces round the clock. Material was delivered and technical assistance was provided independent of public holidays, weekends and time of day.
Kärcher technicians were on site in the area of Banda Aceh to put the donated systems into operation together with their partners, and to train the task forces on site so that they can use the systems efficiently.
Six weeks after the catastrophe, many task forces are still active in the flood areas. Although many wells have already been cleaned area-wide supply, especially in remote regions, has not yet been ensured. And it will take another number of months until all people are able to live without international aid.
