Louisville nonprofit grapples with growing global demand for its water purification devices

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) – A Louisville nonprofit organization has found that its success has presented it with new challenges.

WaterStep manufactures devices that produce clean drinking water and disinfectant.

The nonprofit estimates that this will affect the lives of 14.2 million people, including those living in the most remote and underdeveloped parts of the world.

This number includes 2 million people who have used their products this year.

“Our teams around the world have had such an impact and have built such a name for WaterStep in terms of what we can do and what they can do, that we can’t match them,” said WaterStep founder Mark Hogg.

In addition to bleach and chlorine generators, WaterStep also developed water purification devices called Water On Wheels (WOW).

Volunteers used to produce 10 WOW carts a year, but recently they have had to increase that to three a day to keep up with demand.

“We literally had to rework the way we built these carts throughout the building,” said Steven Combest, vice president of manufacturing at WaterStep. “So we had to develop an assembly line process.”

With continued demand almost certain, the only missing ingredient for WaterStep’s future growth is money.

Hogg estimates that millions of dollars will be needed to answer two urgent questions.

“Can we do what’s needed to meet demand? Can we fund it now? And that’s where we are,” Hogg said.