Saturday, July 27, 2019

RIDGID initiates clean up drive to help schools recover from floods

Recognizing the fact that flooding is an inevitability in low lying areas of the Philippines during the rainy season, RIDGID tools has donated wet and dry vacuum cleaners with the ability to suck standing water left behind by heavy rains, to the San Miguel-Meysulao High School and AFG Bernardino Memorial School, both in Bulacan. Both schools are in areas that flood nearly every year, and usually more than once a year.


We think of vacuum cleaners as great labor-saving devices that suck away large amounts of dust with little effort, and greater effectiveness than conventional methods. Few even know that there is such a thing as a wet and dry vacuum that can suck standing water just as easily as accumulated dust and dirt. It is impossible to use a conventional vacuum cleaner for water, it takes a specially designed and built wet and dry vacuum to keep water from coming into contact with the vacuum’s working electrical parts.

 “Anyone who has ever had to clean up a flood-soaked floor, a bad spill or even a shower stall with a clog, has wished there was a tool or a device that could actually suck standing water or liquid as easily as a conventional a vacuum cleaner sucks dust.” mused RIDGID Marketing Leader Ivy Santos. “To be able to simply touch a nozzle on large amounts of accumulated standing water and see it quickly, and easily sucked away is something anyone who has had to clean up after a flood will truly appreciate.”  

When flooding occurs, long after flood waters recede, residual standing water can continue to make certain rooms and places unusable, unlivable and even pose health risks. There is a reason dengue instances rise sharply with the coming of the rainy season; pools of water tend to form in unexpected places where they can’t simply be drained or mopped away, and where they won’t simply dry up on their own.  

One of the biggest reasons accumulation of such pools is not always addressed is that to do so with ordinary methods is a time consuming and dirty job.  When it is imperative that these puddles be addressed, it can and often does require several people working several hours to get it done using conventional tools like brooms, mops and buckets.  The task often requires that those doing the cleaning wade in dirty water much of the time.  

For the San Miguel-Meysulao High School and AFG Bernardino Memorial School, downtime caused by flooding and post flooding cleanup often greatly disrupts the academic calendar.  Richard Bagtas a head teacher at the AFG Bernardino Memorial School, lamented: “Even just 30 minutes of heavy rain can begin to cause flooding.”  

“Just this June, we lost two full days of school, that doesn’t even include days when classes had to be suspended in the middle of the day.”  He continues “Some of our school buildings are very old and have history, these building are where our labs and workshops are, and they are in flood prone areas, so even when flood waters recede, cleanup takes up to two hours, and our students need to do much of the work.”

To show how such regularly recurring problems can be addressed more quickly, safely, and more easily than ever, RIDGID personnel demonstrated that water sucking feature of RIDGID’s wet dry vacuums at both schools and showed how several liters of pooled standing water and the dirt, debris and floating around in the water can be easily sucked away in a matter of minutes by a one person.  Once filled, the vacuum has a large drain that provides effortless water removal.

Because of the vacuum’s powerful suction, rooms that could once only be swept clean can now be cleaned with soap or disinfectant and water, and then easily rinsed and sucked dry.  “The wet dry vacs will be very helpful in our workshop and lab areas all year round.  When it floods, we can use them to speed up cleanup and minimize downtime, but even on regular days, our labs, especially our furniture lab, can get very dusty and dirty due to the type of work we do here.”  enthused Bagtas.

RIDGID wet and dry vacuums offer best in class performance with every variant.  Best in terms of suction power, and best in terms of ruggedness and durability.  Like other RIDGID tools, RIDGID wet and dry vacuums are preferred by and built for those who know. 

For more information on RIDGID wet and dry vacuums, visit https://www.ridgid.com/ph/en/wet-dry-vacuum

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