GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — As Nepal works to recover from deadly flash flooding, a water engineer from Grand Rapids is preparing to travel there to help with relief efforts.
Some 1,300 people were killed in the flash floods in late August. Thousands remain missing.
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Rich Grant is with the nonprofit Safe Water International Ministries and has previously traveled to Nepal 15 times. He leaves for his next trip Oct. 5.
"It's horrifying what happened," Grant said of the destruction in Nepal. "The waters have receded and they're now trying to figure out how to live."
"A lot of the wells have been contaminated where people lived. If the well even exists, if it's not buried in mud, it's contaminated. So very difficult to get clean water and most of these areas were remote areas along the river valley," he continued. "Our goal right now is to train people about how to make chlorine from food-grade table salt and how to then use that chlorine at about 10 drops per liter of safe water."
The chlorine is made through electrolysis using battery-powered devices constructed by volunteers with the nonprofit. About 40 drops of the chlorine solution can purify a liter of muddy water after about an hour.
"If you're drinking some water, I'll ask for a drop of it, put it on the scope, and immediately you'll see them swimming and dancing and bacteria, and we add one drop and done," Grant said.
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Grant will travel to Nepal to resupply the teams that are training communities on how to use the device.
"As the people continue to search for water and their best available sources as they're trained, this will be there. This is a permanent installation," Grant said.
If you want to donate or learn how to volunteer, visit the nonprofit's website.
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