West Plains, MO. – A non-profit agency within the West Plains area operates world-wide, but may be one you’ve never heard of. It’s called Sweetwater Research.
Sweetwater Research is a sort of troubleshooting service for people both locally and abroad when it comes to access to clean, drinkable water. We spoke to David Pendergrass, the Executive Director of Sweetwater Research, on how they go about helping people solve their problems.
“In Cambodia we were doing a project in 2019 putting in ceramic water filters in their homes…” David said, going on to state those filters were becoming clogged up due to fine sediments inside of the water supply. But there was an answer. “They have moringa trees. With moringa trees, you can grind up the seeds, and with that powder, it will create a sort of magnetism with the suspended clay, to form those snowballs of clay to cause it to sink to the bottom.”
Sweetwater attempts to problem solve for people, giving them tools to create access to drinking water using sustainable resources that are attainable by the local people, ensuring there is no dependency cycle.
Sweetwater Research was also involved in the city-wide testing in West Plains last year as the City tested their sewer system with colored smoke.
The non-profit science organization is also currently looking to bring an up-and-coming water scientist in Ethiopia stateside to the Ozarks to study how our water functions, as a way to take this knowledge back home.
To learn more about Sweetwater Research, you can go online to https://sweetwaterresearch.org, or you can call them at 254-434-1730.
