The Water Cure | Lifewater Drilling Brings Water to Haiti

May 1, 2010  

Les Babcock, owner, Lifewater Drilling Ltd.

by Lindsey Norris

WELL INTENTIONED: Semi-retired water well driller Les Babcock plies his trade in Haiti, where fresh drinking water can be scarce

Haiti, it is generally presumed, is a desperately poor nation of crumbling shanties presided over by a steady line of corrupt despots. Foreign Affairs advises against going there, and if you do, to beware of daylight carjackings, inferior medications and broken traffic lights. This is more or less valid, but it has never stopped Les Babcock, a well driller from Bow Island, from packing his bags and drilling equipment to provide the country badly needed, safe drinking water. He’s been going to Haiti for over 40 years, long before Hollywood’s elite got involved. Though he is now 72, an age when most people are more concerned about the water hazards on a golf course than the water hazards in the drinking supply, he has no plans to stop. Not that he is without an appreciation for luxury. He says he usually stays quite comfortably in Haiti, and rarely in the mud huts you might expect from watching the news. In fact, just back from a post-quake visit, he lauded the accommodations – the house had a generator. Now that’s retirement living.

AV: How did you get into well drilling?
LB: My wife and I first went to Haiti in 1969 with a non-denominational Christian mission. My wife is a nurse, and 50% of the people they saw in the clinic had water-related illnesses. We lived there from 1974 to 1985, and in ’82 Lifewater International [a Christian not-for-profit] provided us with the original equipment, so that’s when I got into well drilling. I decided I wanted to know how to do it properly and trained at Red Deer College.

Why start the business in Bow Island?
I worked in a fabrication shop in Vancouver but we had a property investment in Bow Island, just southwest of Medicine Hat, and I like to see the sun. The business of water wells wasn’t as much about what I could do in Canada as what I could do abroad. I wanted to survive in the business and hopefully come out on the good end of it each year, but mainly I didn’t want to teach people to do things wrong in Haiti. I also helped three people get through the apprenticeship program at Red Deer College.

Don’t you feel unsafe there?
Haiti has had its violent ups and downs. We have always gone to the north of Haiti to Cape Haitian, which avoids the capital. People have always received us well. I guess we would say they somewhat protect us, because there have been times when there has been shooting going on and they will tell us what is wise and unwise.

What sort of environment do you drill in?
Haiti is mostly mountainous, but we do the majority of our drilling on a plain, so it’s relatively easy. We do percussion drilling, the most economical method. It is time-consuming, but time is not really a factor in that culture.

Who do you drill wells for in Canada?
I am trying to retire, so I do more consulting than drilling now. I drill mostly on farms, ranches and new acreages. I consult on testing wells for oil or seismic companies … so after their work is done there is some proof there were no ill effects on the water well.

Some people are predicting a worldwide freshwater crisis.
That is probably true. I think there will be a day when they will have to move water because there will be some areas where water is very hard to find, or it will take a lot of treatment.

How can people help Haiti, post-crisis?
Canadians have been very gracious and giving. But first and foremost, I learned a long time ago that it’s very difficult to help people. When I first started drilling wells, I thought, “This well should be available 24 hours a day to anyone who needs it.” The Haitians said that was foolish. They know their culture better than we do: the ones we didn’t lock lasted three months before needing repairs. The locked wells lasted three years.

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