A Mission in Monrovia – Kärcher Futuretech Service Technicians Ensure Clean Water in West Africa
14 February 2007 15:07
Three Kärcher Futuretech service technicians recently spent almost two weeks in the tropical rainforest zone of West Africa maintaining water purification systems.
In April 2004, the United Nations (UN) had already procured ten Kärcher Waterclean WTC 2000 UN-W water treatment systems. A further 18 systems have been constructed in Liberia since, and a maintenance contract was placed by UNMIL (the United Nations Mission In Liberia) at the beginning of 2007.
This was a good reason for the Kärcher Futuretech service technicians, Michael Schumacher, Frank Wydra and Dirk Meyer, to book their flights to the West African presidential state. "Carrying out a safety check on the running systems and a repeat training for the operating personnel that had changed in the last couple of years was of high priority," pointed out Michael Schumacher.
In Liberia, which is divided into sectors, 19 Waterclean WTC 2000 UN-Ws are presently in use. The journeys to the individual water purification systems were a real adventure. The specialists took a helicopter to reach the three other sector centres beside Monrovia: Zwedru, Gbarnga and River Cess. This was followed by a journey in a Jeep which took, on average, three hours.
"We drove over potholes that were large enough to lose a car in. Our farm tracks would be called motorways over there," said Mr. Schumacher, describing the difficult working conditions. The Kärcher Futuretech service technicians trained the local operating personnel in every sector at temperatures between 30° and 35°, and humidity of nearly 100%. "The main problem was the lack of maintenance work which had been carried out. With regard to spare parts, there were almost no complaints," stated the Kärcher Futuretech service trio, summarising their mission in the tropical vegetation.
Further service missions are foreseen in the next years because nine additional WTC 2000 UN-W water treatment systems are stored in Liberian depots at present.
WATERCLEAN WTC 2000 UN W/A CONTAINERISED WATER TREATMENT UNIT
The Waterclean WTC 2000 UN W/A is a containerised water treatment unit for the treatment of surface or well water to drinking water. When operated continuously, the system has a maximum output of 48m³ drinking water per day (depending on the composition of the raw water).
The containerised Waterclean WTC 2000 UN W/A water treatment system makes the processing of contaminated water into drinking water possible. Contamination can be natural or caused by catastrophes.
The system is very flexible: it can be used to treat all water to make it suitable for drinking – from fresh water up to highly turbid raw water from open water sources – with the same machine and without any adaptations.
The ultra-filtration technology, which is based on a process which has been introduced worldwide, represents the core of the water purification system. The Kärcher plant technology ensures easy operation at the highest process safety level. Chemicals are not required for the ultra-filtration treatment process, so no waste chemicals result. Depending on the raw water quality, flocculation chemicals can be useful.
The system consists of two containers:
- WTC 2000 UN-W: The first container is the water purification container which houses the pre-treatment, the ultra-filtration and all necessary sub-systems including the controls
- WTC 2000 UN-A: The second container is for the various accessories and houses the different buffer tanks, raw water pumps, spares, water distribution station and a wide range of other items during transport
For more information on this company:
Kaercher Futuretech - Water Purification Systems
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