During the Liberian civil war between 1995 and 2004, all Lifewater wells were drilled with the LS100 drilling rig. This lightweight unit is relatively safe for new drillers to use, can be easily carried in a pickup truck, and can create good water supplies in many places.
During well audits in 2007, we noticed that many of the wells being drilled were increasingly shallow. This is understandable as workers were paid by the number of wells completed, and wells were completed faster and with less physical effort if they were shallow. However, more and more wells were being found where residents complained that there was no water during March and April — the two hottest months of the year.
In 2008, a special celebration was planned for Lifewater’s 200th well in Liberia. The last thing anyone wanted was for this to be a bad well! Drilling started in the community of “Sand Town.” When the drillers hit hard rock at 45 feet, there was great concern because this was the depth of hand-dug wells in the area that went dry in the hot season.
The Lifewater drillers were told to keep drilling. The rig bounced around and progress was measured in inches per hour. The frustration of the drill team mounted, and soon they were grinding their teeth and saying this effort was pointless.
Then at 55 feet, they broke through the hard rock layer that had been impenetrable to local well diggers. The borehole was terminated at 60 feet with an impressive yield of eight gallons per minute!
To this day, this is the only well in the area that does not go dry in the hot season, and many other communities have benefited because the drillers have applied lessons learned there to go deeper in other communities than the local hand-dug wells that don’t provide water year-round!
