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 "Photo: Illustration by Justin Velasco")
He wakes up before the sun rises. He carries his bucket down the bamboo steps and through the jungles of Thailand. After two miles of hiking through the bush, he scoops up a full bucket of water and turns around.
He arrives at his one-room hut just in time for his mother to start making breakfast. He will have to make this hike multiple times today. It is part of his life.
Being a villager in the hills of Thailand is a demanding task. Gathering water daily is not only a difficult journey, but also a dangerous one.
Mike Mann wanted to change that.
Mann is the son of missionary parents who served in Thailand. He observed his mother and father working with orphanages and clinics and he hoped to one day contribute to this country in his own way.
“I decided to go to Cal Poly Pomona to learn about water engineering,” said Mann. “I thought this was a way I could help the Thai people.”
After graduating in 1989, Mann returned to Thailand with his wife, Becky. He was fresh out of college and ready to use his education in the field.
“I had everything planned my way,” said Mann. “I did the math the way I was taught. All that went out the window the first time I tried putting in a water system,”
The village life is much more different than the textbooks. Mann had to learn to use the resources around him to create a water system that could be easily installed and maintained without expensive equipment.
If the villagers could not gather the resources from a nearby town, then Mann did not use it. He spent months trying to perfect a system that was right for village living and did hours of research to gather the right tools that were local.
A villager named Insom learned about Mann’s missionary project and quickly offered his knowledge. Insom grew up in a village and knew what was accessible. The two became an inseparable team.
“Insom created the project the way it is now,” said Mann. “I could have never come up with this system without him. My knowledge only went as far as the textbook.”
Insom and Mann began their first project 19 years ago. After a few trial and errors, they began a ministry of bringing fresh, clean water to the doorsteps of hill tribe villagers using a simple PVC pipe system and concrete holding tank.
After Insom died, Mann continued the project with his wife and team of hill tribe villagers who learned about the project and wanted to help Mann in his ministry.
The Integrated Tribal Development Program is a unique team. Because there are different languages spoken in the village, Mann always has someone who can translate from the hill tribe language to Thai.
Soon, Mann began accepting help from churches. Teams were sent to live one week in a village while helping ITDP install the water system. Most of the teams come from California and some are from Britain and Sweden.
A team from Pomona is sent every year to help Mann.
“It is a great opportunity to help others and see the difference you made in their lives,” said David Brandon, a former Pomona team member.
Brandon’s favorite moment came when he witnessed a little girl trying on her new shoes.
She had walked through some mud and it caked onto her brand new shoes the team had given her. Almost instinctively, she walked over to a water spigot, turned it on and rinsed off her shoe.
“A week ago, she didn’t have shoes,” said Brandon. “A week ago, she didn’t know she would have water that accessible. Her life had been completely transformed and she probably didn’t even know it.”
While some team members are touched by the lives of the villagers, others are fascinated by the installation process.
“I am an engineer. I loved seeing how Mike used resources from around the village to create an effective system just for them,” said Brian Carson, a Cal Poly alumnus and former team member.
Mann starts his projects by laying pipes from the water source to the village. After the pipes are laid, the rest of the week is spent trenching and burying them.
“Trenching was tiring and humbling,” said Carson. “I would run out of breath after five minutes but the ladies next to me kept digging away.”
Simultaneously, other team members would mix cement, cut bamboo, lay rebar and start building bathrooms.
Sanitation is a big problem in hill tribe villages. Because there are no bathrooms, the villagers are surrounded by human feces. These bacteria seep into their gardens and animals they eat are infected. Many people die just from this.
The bathrooms are simple 10-foot holes covered by a porcelain toilet. After the toilet is used, the villagers pour water into it and that is what flushes the toilet. This is the easiest and most functional way of getting rid of human waste.
Building bathrooms transforms their lives and health, but so does installing a filtration system.
“We use rocks, sand, and charcoal to filter the water,” said Mann. “We don’t use any expensive equipment and we teach the villagers how to replace the filter.”
Clean water is the answer to saving 3.5 million people every year, which is bigger than ending a war, according to water.org.
After about two weeks worth of work, a filter tank, a holding tank, water spigots and bathrooms are installed and the villagers’ lives are never the same.
“The villagers can now water their gardens, the children can now go to school and the health within the village is greatly improved,” said Mann.
About 12 villages a year receive a water system from Mann and ITDP Mann never grows weary of the labor involved with the project.
“There is no greater satisfaction in life than helping someone else,” said Mann. “I think I picked the right profession.”
Reach Mallory Corkery at: news@thepolypost.com
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