Parker Hannifin Corporation has partnered with Christian NGO-based SIM and Water Missions International to supply water purification equipment for the ongoing Ebola crisis in Monrovia, Liberia.
Water Treatment Systems as provided by Parker Hannifin will supply treated water to the ELWA Campus, new 80 bed hospital and those fighting the spread of this deadly disease at the world’s largest Ebola Treatment Center in Monrovia.
SIM opened its ministry in Liberia in 1954 with a radio station to share the gospel. The original call letters were ‘ELWA’, which stands for Eternal Love Winning Africa.
Later, in 1965 SIM opened a hospital that has grown into the present ELWA facility. At present the 55 bed hospital is still housed in the original buildings.The hospital has an outpatient department that sees 150 to 200 patients per day. The hospital also includes obstetrics, surgery, an emergency room, pediatrics, family medicine, and an HIV unit.
Due to the rapid spread of the Ebola disease, the ELWA Hospital had to create a 100+ bed Ebola unit, separate from the hospital, to avoid cross infection. In addition to this, a 260 bed Ebola unit, operated by MSF (Doctors Without Borders) is located on the ELWA campus.
For the last six months of 2014 fully one half of all the beds for Ebola patients in Liberia have been located on the ELWA campus. SIM’s partner organization, Samaritan’s Purse, had started building a new 80 bed hospital on the ELWA property before the Ebola outbreak began.
When complete, this will include a teaching hospital with an SIM-managed residency programme to train Liberian doctors. SIM’s 136-acre site in Monrovia is also home to a school, the ELWA Academy which teaches nursery school children to Grade 10, with future plans to add Grades 11 and 12.
Parker has donated three independent 20ft containerized water purification systems. Each containerized system consists of filtration, two step disinfection process, water storage tanks and distribution pumps to ensure supply of safe water to those in need.
Along with the water purification equipment Parker has supplied Water Missions International with thousands of feet of Parker hose and fittings to accompany and distribute the water.
The containerized water systems are scheduled to be delivered in January 2015. Parker’s proven filtration and instrumentation technologies are able to support the entire process of collecting, purifying and testing water from local sources to assist relief efforts.
Similar water purification systems have been deployed to assist in other recovery efforts in partnership with various relief efforts such as those supplied to assist the United States Army efforts in Biloxi, Mississippi, US, following Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the Philippines Red Cross in November 2013 when Super Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) made landfall near the city of Tacloban.
Parker Hannifin Water Purification engineers, designs and fabricate standard catalogue and custom engineered solutions for a variety of applications including those serving the offshore oil and gas, commercial marine, military and land-based installations.
