Pump Aid

Pump Aid is an international non-profit organisation that was set up in 1998. It is headquartered in London and delivers all its services in Africa, mostly in Malawi. Pump Aid is a WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) NGO and is part of a worldwide programme committed to the delivery of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and the total eradication of water poverty by 2030.

Pump Aid had offices in Malawi and London, and as of 2018 employed approximately 23 people, 70% of whom were based in Africa. Most of whom are national staff in Malawi trained in well-digging and water-pump installation.

History
Pump Aid was founded in 1998 by three teachers working in a rural primary school in Zimbabwe. Two of their pupils fell ill from contaminated water and died. These teachers realised the need for health superseded the need for education and so set up Pump Aid to provide wells in rural communities. The Zimbabwe government estimates that 10% of that country's rural population now accesses water through pumps supplied by Pump Aid.

In 2006, Pump Aid began working in Malawi where the bulk of its projects are now based. Malawi is the sixth poorest country in the world (by GDP per capita) and is ranked 170 (out of 188 ) on the UN Human Development Index. 85% of Malawi's population is engaged in and relies on rain-fed small-scale farming and only 11% of small-scale farmers have access to any form of irrigation.

In recent years Pump Aid has moved away from simply installing pumps and now sees improved access to water as part of a broader context which includes, hygiene and sanitation, food and nutrition, access to education and economic independence.

Self-supply
Pump Aid has been trialling a different approach to reducing water poverty called self-supply, through which individuals are encouraged to invest in improvements to their own water supplies.

Pilot Project

Pump Aid received funding from UNICEF to pilot this approach in an agricultural district of Malawi called Kasungu and provided intensive support to a group of 25 local entrepreneurs, encouraging them to set up financially sustainable small businesses supplying a range of water products and services to three core markets: households, communities and small-scale farmers.

The results of the pilot were astonishing and, in barely twelve months of training, by digging wells, installing household pumps and repairing community pumps that had ceased to function, these 25 entrepreneurs delivered improved access to safe water to 21,614 people and had proved that, by the creation of a network of small businesses, pump functionality can be massively improved. Pump functionality in their delivery area increased from less than 55% to better than 95% and all this was delivered at a cost of around £12 per individual gaining access to water (including all start-up costs). This is less than half the cost of a traditional rural small community water point.

Early Childhood Development - CBCCs
Early in 2015 Pump Aid began working in rural pre-schools (known in Malawi as Community Based Childcare Centres - CBCCs), which are a key element of the government's Childhood Development Strategy. There are over 9,000 of these in Malawi, but fewer than 25% have access to safe water or basic sanitation facilities, exposing young children to life-threatening risks of water-borne diseases like diarrhoea.

Rural WASH
Pump Aid's improved access to rural WASH programme is based around its own unique take on a traditional rope and washer pump known as the Elephant Pump.

Elephant Pump

The Elephant Pump, based on a 3,000-year-old Chinese design, is a built using materials that can all be sourced locally and has very few moveable (and therefore breakable) parts. The name "Elephant Pump" refers to the pump's strength, shape, and reliability and the simplicity of its design means that, if it breaks (as pumps in Africa frequently do), 50% of breakages can be fixed within a day and 90% within four days.

The Elephant Pump has now provided clean, safe water to over 1.35 million people living in rural areas of Zimbabwe Liberia and Malawi.

Urban waste
In September 2015, Pump Aid began a Comic Relief match-funded programme in Blantyre, which sought to engage the local private sector in the provision of safe water, hygienic sanitation and waste recycling in the informal settlements that surround that city. In 2016 this programme expanded into Lilongwe. Pump Aid initiated this urban project after seeing a need for clean water in the informal settlements around Blantyre and Lilongwe, which are not served by local water boards. The programme supports local entrepreneurs to sell water filters and recycle waste in order to make a living.

Awards and recognition

 * Winner of the 2005 and 2008 "St Andrews Prize for the Environment"