LifeNets Provides Water Chlorinator for Chizeni Clinic in Balaka
Posted September 2, 2009 (updated December 23, 2009)
In 2002 we learned about New Life International in Underwood, Indiana (http://waterfortheworld.com). It is an organization that has provided an ingenious simple chlorination system that requires only their device, salt and a car battery to produce chlorine gas and provide chlorination capacity for large volumes of water in remote poor areas.
 The Chlorinator is finally installed at the Chizeni Clinic in Balaka, Malawi on June 8, 2006 |
LifeNets needed something like this at the new clinic we were building in Balaka, Malawi. On April 14, 2002 my wife Beverly, my good friend Bill Jahns and I went down to Underwood to look at the device. Bill was about to move to South Africa and I asked him if he would install it when he got to Malawi. He has an engineering background and is good with this kind of thing.
We were shipping a 20 ton container to Malawi in June 2002 and this chlorinator went on it. But, it would be four years until it was actually installed as a cistern and building for storage area had to be built..
In the images below
you Bill Jahns and us in Underwood, Indiana and you can finally see him
at the Chizeni Clinic in June 2006 installing the device.
During the rainy season rain water from the sheet metal roof goes into
the 10 foot by 10 foot by 10 foot cube cistern. From there it is
pumped up into a tank. After the tank it flows into a drum inside
the clinic. The water purification system is between the tank and
drum. The last time we visited this site was on
October 8, 2008. I blogged our journey on TravelPod at
http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/victorkubik/7/1223480220/tpod.html
History of the Project:
 April 14, 2002 visit to New Life Life International in Underwood, Indiana. Bill Jahns and Victor Kubik
Duvon McGuire and Bill Jahns |
 Duvon McGuire (left) showing Bill Jahns and Beverly Kubik how the chlorinator works
On location in Malawi |
20 ton
40 foot container that carried the purifier and lots of other items to
Malawi for us. June 21, 2002
Ambassador Bible Center students helped us load the container all day long
 Blue barrel for collecting the purified water ready for drinking
The water is stored in cistern which is an underground cube 10 feet by 10 feet by 10 feet |
 Dr. Chilopora in October 2006 by the chlorinator when Victor and Beverly Kubik visited
During the rainy season rain water is collected from sheet metal roof on clinic
Building where the chlorinator is housed. |
The information below is from New Life International's Web site that explains how the process works.
YouTube video from New Life International
Where we are in Malawi
During the rainy season rain water from the sheet metal roof goes into
the 10 foot by 10 foot by 10 foot cube cistern. From there it is
pumped up into a tank. After the tank it flows into a drum inside
the clinic. The water purification system is between the tank and
drum.
In the FALL 2009 edition of Newlife International's newsletter, they wrote a story about our Malawi chlorinator after we informed them that we got it up and working:
A Surprise Report from Malawi
Since the beginning of the water purification ministry of New Life International in 1998, hundreds of people have come to visit the mission headquarters in Southern Indiana. Mission teams and their leaders, missionaries to foreign fields, and international Christians from overseas have come for training and to take water purifiers to over 60 needy countries of the world.
Keeping track of all the purifiers, their whereabouts, and doing follow-up communications with the operators of them is in itself a full-time job. Sometimes they slip through the cracks. Occasionally a water purifier is taken to a mission field and for some reason remains in storage lacking the place or right person to set it up.
Thus it was a surprise to recently hear from a missionary in Malawi that he had gotten a water purifier for Malawi in 2002. He reports that finally after 7.5 years the purifier is working beautifully and actually has been since June 2006.
The words of Paul in Philippians 1:6 remind us " ... that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." As He has begun a good work within our personal lives and in the ministry of New Life International, we pray we will always be surrendered to His perfect will so His good work will continue in us and through us. We are just like the water purifier, we need to be taken off the shelf and put to the good use God intended of saving lives.