INVENTION IS THE SOLUTION

Thousands of years ago the first humans dug into riverbeds looking for water. That was an innovation that lead to the advancement of the human condition. Then an early human lined the hand dug pit with stone, inventing the hand dug well that could obtain water from greater depths. That was an invention that lead to the advancement of the human condition. Then some human long ago determined that they could "hand drill" using a sludging method to obtain water. That was an invention that advanced the human condition, making life sustainable where it had previously been unsustainable. Afterward, humans began to invent other methods of drilling, leading to direct circulation, reverse circulation, percussion drills, top hole hammers and down the hole hammers. All of those inventions started slowly but were allowed to move forward leading us to a world where water access is available in any place where these tools can work.

We are now at a point in human history where inventions in water access are frowned upon and inventors are encouraged not to invent new methods to save human life. We have reached a point in time where "investigation" is a blind alley that leads only to more investigation. As an expert in the field, I can remember when the water problem was going to be solved in the 1980's then the 90's then before the end of the century. We are now well into the 21st century and we haven't reached the goals set for the 20th century. And we have increased our "investigations" and frowned upon our solutions to the water problem.

A report ( https://www.zaragoza.es/contenidos/medioambiente/onu/1004-eng.pdf ) issued in my early years in the industry indicate that the problems with borehole sustainability have existed pretty much forever. Thousands of people have been "investigating" the problems with borehole sustainability. Some of us have made investigations and have used the information from the investigations to craft tangible inventions that have lead to solutions to the sustainability problem. However, there seems to be no interest in solving the problem. Investigation leads to more investigation and not to solutions. Some of us have developed solutions to the problems of water sustainability but that does not mean that solutions are "wanted" by those persons paid to continue "investigating".

There is an extensive list of "investigations" going back from today into history. There are currently multiple "new investigations" that are underway. However, there is a widespread lack of "acceptance" of new inventions that resolve the problems. One could surmise that the intent of some people is to investigate forever and to never allow for the resolution of the problem.

Inventors have solved many of the problems that plague the borehole industry, all that needs to be done is to put the inventions into service and iterate.

For those dying and suffering from a lack of water, the millions ---no billions-- of dollars spent on dead end investigations has been a death sentence. It is time that we no longer simply investigate, we must initiate action and take the knowledge gained from the multitude of investigations and apply it in the field. In order to do so, we must fund inventions that can actually save lives.