In the village of Sinthiang Koundara, Senegal, Africa, water is flowing from a new well made possible by the pool industry. “I’m happy,” said Harold Evans, owner of Fairview, Texas-based Orenda Technologies. “It happened a little quicker than I thought.”

Construction of the well began last fall. Several Independent Pool & Spa Service Association chapters donated to the well drilled by World Vision, as did other pool industry professionals.

The idea started when officials at Orenda Technologies, a maker of water treatments, offered to donate up to 3 percent of sales in an area to a charity benefiting clean water, in lieu of rebates.

Funds were earmarked for a well in Sinthiang Koundara by request of a North Phoenix IPSSA Chapter member. Annie Abbate, owner of Chem-Tech Pool Cleaning in Greater Phoenix, has sponsored a girl in that village for years through World Vision. In addition to Orenda’s donation, the North Phoenix Chapter gave $1,000 toward the $7,700 cost of the well. Another portion of the funds came from a $25 suggested donation for Orenda Technologies training seminars that the company matches.

Through these efforts, the entire cost of the well was funded.

The idea was always to donate the money toward making clean drinking water available to areas that need it. While World Vision allowed the previous donations to be earmarked for a specific village, the organization no longer wants to do that, preferring to place the money in a general fund. This isn’t how Evans envisions this effort for his company, so he is investigating other charities.

“We feel that identifying and targeting projects for completion is a better strategy than putting money in a general fund,” Evans said.

“I want to continue this concept. The water concept and the well concept is a consistent one.” To that end, several training seminars are scheduled at SCP locations in Southern California with suggested donations that Orenda will match: San Diego on April 28, Palm Desert on April 29 and Anaheim on April 30. Those interested can contact those SCP branches for more information.