Water Services That Last
Life-Cycle Costs Approach
Philanthropedia medal
INGO Accountability Charter logo

Village level pumps

Updated - Monday 19 March 2007

I am looking for relevant organisations, websites and publications dealing with Village Level Operation and Maintenance (VLOM) pumps and handpumps in general.

Organisations / networks / websites

  • Bombas de Mecate - The Rope Pump
    Firm producing rope pumps. Their website provides technical and managerial information on rope pumps and on rope pump developments around the world
    Address: Technology Transfer Division; Bombas de Mecate S.A.; P.O.Box 3352; Managua, Nicaragua. Fax 00-505-2784045; Send an email
  • Rural Water Supply Network (RWSN) (former HTN)
    RWSN aims to facilitate the provision of safe water and sanitation to the poor and deprived through the promotion of sustainable technologies - primarily hand-pump technology - that are affordable and responsive to the needs of the users. They provide information on low cost drilling, supply chains, small communities and household solutions, standardisation. Many publications are fulltext available.
    Address: RWSN Secretariat; Skat Foundation; Vadianstrasse 42; St.Gallen CH-9000; Switzerland
  • Lifewater Canada, a non-profit group training nationals to drill safe drinking water wells and build handpumps. See their Water wells tutorial, an on-line tutorial providing technical instructions needed to construct safe drinking water wells. In-depth instructions are provided on using the LS-100 drill machine and Bush (modified Zimbabwe) handpumps. The Handpumps Resources section provides information on and links to over 25 handpumps for shallow and deep wells.
  • Practica Foundation
    The Practica Foundation facilitates research, development and commercial application of technology in the field of water and energy in developing countries. They have also published a nice booklet called Smart Water Solutions.
    Address: Schoorweg 22; 3356 BK Papendrecht; Netherlands. Send an email.
  • Pump Aid, Water for Life
    Pump Aid builds appropriate technology water pumps, called Elephant Pumps that can be maintained by poor rural communities without any outside assistance.
    Address: 52 Priory Road Loughborough; LE11 3PP Leicestershire; United Kingdom. Send an email.
  • Seniors for the Third World
    An organisation of active seniors, whose knowledge and experience are put at the service of the rural population in the Third World. They developed a small-scale pedal irrigation pump which have been succesfully installed in several countries throughout the world.
    Address: SE3WE Bahnhofstrasse 4; CH-6020 Emmenbrücke; Switzerland. Send an email.

Publications

  • Baumann, E. (2000). Water lifting. (Manuals on drinking water supply series / SKAT/SDC; no. 7). St. Gallen, Switzerland : SKAT (Swiss Centre for Development Cooperation in Technology and Management). 78 p., 49 fig., 2 tab. ISBN 3908001994. Download [3 MB!]: http://www.pat-drill.com/pdf/Water%20Lifting.pdf
    Focusing on the task of pumping water, Water Lifting serves either as a stand-alone reference text or as a valuable companion for the publications in this series that focus more on the subject of ensuring primary access to potable water. Demand Responsive Approaches give village communities the power to choose which type of technology they want for their water supply facilities. Villages are also responsible for the management of the systems and have to take into consideration costs for operation, maintenance and major repairs as well as the reliability. To arrive at a sensible choice, it is necessary that the communities are aware of the technical, financial and institutional implications of their technology preferences. This book gives information on the different technology options for pumping water (point sources or piped systems) in an easy-to-read format. It lists possible managerial models for provision of services and O&M through the private sector. Technical fact sheets catalogue the most common hand pumps used in rural water.
  • Brikke, F. (2000). Operation and maintenance of rural water supply and sanitation systems : a training package for managers and planners. Geneva, Switzerland : World Health Organization (WHO).
    The updated training package is designed as a guide to facilitators who will conduct courses or workshops on management of operation and maintenance of rural water supply and sanitation services.
    Read more at: http://www.irc.nl/page/1842 or download the pdf document: http://www.irc.nl/content/download/2548/26132/file/ome.pdf (874 kB).
  • Colin, J., Woodfield, J. (1999). Lessons learned from Village Level Operation and Maintenance (VLOM). Report summary of WELL Task No. 162.
    There is now considerable doubt that VLOM is possible and it is felt that this concept should be supplemented by other available technologies. External financial support is needed for the purchase, maintenance and repair of pumps. However, there have been a number of positive outcomes from VLOM, as it helped develop the concept of community management; it showed that a flexible approach to service delivery is necessary; and it highlighted the benefits of technology standardisation. Perhaps the greatest lesson is that there are no "off-the-shelf" solutions which can bypass the need for effective government institutions for community support. Where this is not forthcoming, sustainability will always be in doubt.
  • Noppen, D. (1996). Village level operation and maintenance of handpumps : experiences from Karonga, Malawi. (Project and programme papers / IRC; no. 3-E). The Hague, The Netherlands : IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre.
    This paper documents the experiences from the Karonga Lakeshore Groundwater Project, a small rural water supply project in northern Malawi, and emphasizes that village level operation and maintenance (VLOM) is not a technical but a community concept.
    Read more and order information at: http://www.irc.nl/page/1868
  • Smet, J.E.M. ; Wijk-Sijbesma, C.A. van (2002). Small community water supplies : technology, people and partnership. (Technical paper series / IRC; no. 40). Delft, The Netherlands : IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre. See the table of contents and introduction. Hard copy: EUR 34.00, order online, or send an e-mail , order code: TP40-E.
    Chapter nine is on pumping. It includes information on types of pumps; reciprocating pumps; rotary (positive displacement) pumps; axial-flow pumps; centrifugal pumps; air-lift pumps; hydraulic ram; and it also contains a bibliography; web sites and discussion groups.
  • Source Weekly (2003). Afri-pump: simple low-maintenance handpump.
    Based on their work in Kisii (Kenya), the Netherlands-based Rural Water Systems (RWS), developed the Afri-pump, a simple low-maintenance handpump that can be made with locally available materials. RWS says the Afri-pump can be maintained for a fraction of the price of conventional handpumps like the Afridev or India Mark II/III pumps. Its special features include: the maintenance free Beers Piston instead of rubber seals; ability to pump up to depths of 80-100 m; two rising mains in the well for double security and output; corrosion-free PVC rising mains and stainless rods; a simple M-16 bolt construction connecting rods to the pump handle; the use of standard bearings or large size oiled wood in the handle; and one M-16 spanner fits the whole pump. RWS is promoting the pump in Burkina Faso, Niger and Brazil.
    For more information, please contact: Paul van Beers, RWS, http://www.handpump.org
    Source: Personal communication, 26 Nov 2003, RWS
    [This article is taken from Source Weekly, no. 47-48, 4 Dec 2003]

Comment