We took the system with us on the Outreach Medical Missions, which was in the last two weeks of January.  We had a total of 57 team members in the mission.  The Medical mission traveled into the interior of Central Tanzania to the city of Singida.

Singida is a copy of approximately 150,000 people.  Singida is located on a high plateau at an elevation of about 5,000 feet.  The region is arid and is now in the third year of draught.

Potable water is non existent.  Typhoid is a major problem in the area along with many other water born parasites and diseases.  If you can think of a disease, it is there!

When the medical team arrived we found that there was no sterile or potable water available at the hospital in which we were to work.  We had purchased water in Arusha and had shipped the water to Singida for use by the team for daily drinking water.  We require each team member to drink two liter of water each day, as dehydration can be a major problem for the team members with the high temperatures and dry conditions.

We purchase all the available bottled water, approx. 500-liter, which was available at the local water distributor.  The distributor advised us that it would approximately two weeks before he would receive another shipment, as bottled water was in short supply throughout the country.

The portable system was immediate put into use.  Our kitchen staff used the 12 volt unit to product the chlorine, which worked perfectly.  The ceramic filter system gave us some initial problem, but we read the instructions and it worked perfectly.

I would estimate that we made over 600-liter with the system.  The cleaned water was used in the team kitchen and at the hospital.  It was amazing to see how simple and effective the system appears to be and how wonderfully it works.

We are now preparing for the 007 Outreach Medical Mission and we have over 60 medical professions signed up and preparing for the trip.  The mission will be from March 16 through March 29, 2007.

The Singida Region Government Hospital is approximately a 130-bed hospital and serve a large area of over one half mission people.  There are three hospitals in the Region (one each Government, Lutheran, and Catholic) and 11 dispensaries.  If there would be any possibility of providing a larger station unit for the Singida hospital it would be a blessing.

You can be assured that the portable unit will accompany us on the 2007 mission.  The water situation has deteriorated since we were in Singida in January.  We returned from our second trip this year to Singida on July 12.  Water for sanitation is extremely limited, supply to most public and private toilets has been shut off.  This will in the short term create many more problems for the people of Singida.  We were in country for 4 weeks and there was no precipitation.  The situation is very serious and is deteriorating daily.  Potable water remains none existent and the water tables and lake levels are the lowest in memory.

We are so grateful that you introduced us to the system.  You helped save many lives.

Floyd and Kathy Hammer, Outreach Africa     www.outreachafrica.org

It is a pleasure to support the portable water purification system we used in Tanzania.

In Tanzania there is an ongoing problem with the availability of water.  This ranges from basic drinking water to water to grow crops.

In January 2006 I went to Tanzania with a medical team to Singida Hospital.  When we arrived at the Hospital there was a severe need for sterile water for the operating room and recovery rooms.  There was a plan to purchase water but there was not enough available to handle the drinking water needs of the team and the needs of the Doctors and nurses in the operating room.

We then broke out the demonstration system that had been sent with Floyd Hammer and Outreach Africa.  After a few minutes of reading the instructions we then assembled the items we would need to first make the chlorine and then the 5 gallon buckets needed to store the water.  The system worked much better than I think any of us believed it would work.  The next day we set up a "production" line and began purifying an adequate supply of "clean" water.

I believe that this type of system should be carried by ANY medical team going into any area where the condition of the water is uncertain.

It would be very interesting to see what this kind of system could do on a much larger scale.

If I can be of further assistance, please let me know.

Alan Stricklin 817-614-3747

As Medical Director of the Outreach Africa Medical Team, I have had the opportunity to work in Africa on four occasions.  As part of the Advance Team (That prepares the area for the full team’s arrival), I have seen what the lack of water has done to the community.

For instance, when I requested to the hospital staff to boil water, so we had safe water for the patients to drink, I was given a questionable look.  Why did I want the water boiled?  Explaining why we needed safe water was difficult for the staff to comprehend.

As a Medical Team coming into an area we must have ample water for scrubbing down the surgical suites after surgery, to use for the sterilizer to sterilize the equipment, to bathe our patients prior to surgery, to prepare food.....the list, as you can imagine, is endless.

Working on securing adequate water was a full time job for our medical team "fundi's"; whether it was because of the pipes leaking, no water in the tanks, inadequate electricity to run the pumps, the problems were one after the other.

Bottled water is very expensive to purchase for the medical team, definitely too expensive for the native people.  While we boil down water for most needs, we only drink bottled water.  The lack of rain in the area has brought the water table down.  The water runs the electricity for the country, so the compromise is indeed potentially catastrophic to the people, being it is lack of, or no, water available.

Sharon Kramer, RN Outreach Africa Medical Team

A larger scale water purification project would have an incredible impact of the health and economic activity in the Singida district. Everyone spends an inordinate amount of their day trying to secure good water thus draining their energies away from more urgent matter.  This is a much needed project that will help this very poor region.  I feel pure water is the number one problem in this area and securing a good source would dramatically improve its health.

Dale Hadland, MD