Before that, practical training had to be given to ensure the smooth operation of the water bottling systems in addition to regular maintenance directly on site. The staff from the US was trained on the Kärcher Futuretech premises in Schwaikheim. Throughout 2010, four teams practiced operating the system in six-week courses. The four different teams that included operators as well as repair staff were trained under realistic conditions. The first teams already started bottling in the winter months and produced more than 5,000 bottles per day. At the end of the first training course, a team of programme officers, hygiene experts and engineers of the US Army observed how the bottling system works, the bottling conditions on site and the quality of bottled water for themselves. Not only the hygiene experts were very satisfied with their lab results, however: the programme officers were also impressed by the bottled water produced with the systems from Kärcher Futuretech and gave the systems the green light for Afghanistan. Lt. Col. Dariel Mayfield insisted on handing the training certificates to the trainees personally thus delegating the "bottlers" to Afghanistan.
This event also represented an important further step in the consolidation of the cooperation between Kärcher Futuretech, its strategic partner DRS Technologies, and the US Army. Sales manager Wolfgang Kliem is very satisfied with the developments made to date. “The procurement conditions are not easy in the USA, but it has now been demonstrated that they can be overcome together with our partner DRS Technologies on the basis of our long-term strategy.”

The Water Bottling Plant is being used on an international level

Not only Americans rely on the possibility to bottle water directly on site in the field. The British Armed Forces in Camp Bastion (Helmand Province, Afghanistan) have been producing drinking water in bottles for over two years, and the German Federal Armed Forces were even able to celebrate a jubilee in their camp in Mazar-e Sharif in November when bottle no. 3,000,000 was produced. If one sums up all the 1 litre bottles produced by the three armed forces (USA, Great Britain, Germany), the total comes to about 40 million. The point of reference for the strategic use and set-up of the systems is Andreas Hänle, head of service & training at Kärcher Futuretech, who proudly states that "Water bottling is a success story that speaks for itself” and is now looking forward to even more positive outcome from the Hindukush.