Project: Water Pump for Africa

Problem: 

Judy Kopanic, who has been doing work with the Dogon People of Mali, came into the African Outlet and told  Judah she was looking for a water pump for the village, needing it soon, before the drought.

Judy teaching at village school
Judy in Dogon Country...	teaching in village school...	French	A sizeable class	Inquiring minds...	want to know	Dedication	Night Class
Village scenes
Village overview	Village close-up		Cliff dweller village	Cliff dweller village lookout		At the well	Pottery
Masked dancers performing the Dama ceremony for the dead
Dancers..	in waiting...				"backstage"	Musicians...	with instruments
Dancing...	leaping...	Tandem...	precision		Giant masks...	Au pair	Melee

Solution:

A fair amount of research has turned up a number of water pump solutions, as summarized below. 

Judah's non-profit organization, "Paths of Native Africa", is planning a fundraising benefit to cover the costs of equipment and installation, negotiating with such San Francisco venues as the historic Avalon Ballroom. A brief proposal describes the situation in Mali.

Summary

"The Real Goods Company", as well as "The Sustainable Village",  offer considerable AT gear, including large sections for water pumps.

Update 1: An organization website similar to Real Goods, called "The Sustainable Village", has a Projects page that includes an Africa section with an entry for Nigeria showing a listing that reads "Water Pumping Project".

Update 2: Gaviotas Appropriate Technology ("AT") includes "... ultra-efficient pumps to tap deep aquifers-pumps so easy to operate, they're hooked up to children's seesaws".

Update 3: Peace Corps Appropriate Technology ("AT") Library on CD contains a number of CD's covering low-tech, low-cost water pump design and construction plans, a popular choice being the "Hydraulic Ram Pump". A set of construction plans, in PDF format, for a "Hydraulic Ram Pump" have been found and uploaded to the FOAO Public Newsgroup Files Area, in an AT Lib folder. The file can be accessed and downloaded from any computer in the world with web access, such as is commonly found at a Cyber Café, including one that exists in the Mali town of Bamako, a Mali Cyber Cafe.

Update 4: Judah sent along this email from her friend Luc, regarding a candidate water pump for Judy for Mali, "...a one-person, leg-powered irrigation pump...(for)...$55...".

Update 5: The Sustainable Village offers a set of "Hand & Foot Powered Water pumping" solutions including 5 models ranging from $9-35.

Update 6: The Sustainable Village offers a downloadable catalog with a chapter on water containing considerable current Appropriate Technology information on pumps and related gear. They also offer System Configuration Guides, including a "Water Pumping Configuration Worksheet", as online forms you can fill out with basic parameters and questions so that their "engineering and design staff will lend you their expertise and point the way to a solution...(and)...get back to you with...(their)...suggestions and comments".

Detail

Information for where to get the pump - in Hopland, California, the business called The Real Goods Company, which is the current "living tradition" of the original 60's Whole Earth Catalog/Company. Here is their background info, followed by the pump info.

Here's the info on the Hopland store:

The Real Goods Company in Hopland was formed by members of the original '60's, (and is the "reincarnation" of), The Whole Earth Company, who published the Whole Earth Catalog, the original '60's hippies commune building "bible" of Alternative Sustainable Living & Renewable Energy Technologies and "Off-Grid" Utilities, put together by Stewart Brand. 

The Real Goods Company store in Hopland is the "flagship" store. The store also hosts their non-profit spin-off called "Solar Living Institute", where many of the technologies are "up-&-running" & on display. The Institute offers many on-going workshops on how to implement the various Sustainable Living & Renewable Energy Technologies, all of which have a very familiar "Peace Corps-like flavor". The workshops cost a fee, but are very comprehensive (some several days long) and provide a lot for the cost. In fact there is a lucrative construction/engineering business for anyone taking the workshops, then delivering consulting & implementing solutions to "3rd world" countries and villages world-wide, that could benefit by these technologies.

The Real Goods Company/Solar Living Institute, to bring it all together, has an annual weekend Festival called "Solfest" at the Hopland location, where they bring out, set-up & demonstrate all the technologies - this years event, SolFest 2003, is slated for August 23rd and 24th. They also do all the workshops mentioned above, the difference being, the Solfest workshops are no fee, ALL FREE. The Solfest typically includes speakers, entertainment, educational workshops, exhibitor booths with renewable energy and earth-friendly products, along with an electric vehicle parade. The Festival is also a lot of fun, kind of like a "hippy day on the green" outdoor party, with lots of music bands and a Sunday Brunch Concert.

Here's the info on the water pump:

The Real Goods Company has also "reincarnated" the original Whole Earth Catalog mentioned above, which they publish as a catalog (updated every year) called the "Real Goods Solar Living Source Book: The Complete Guide to Renewable Energy Technologies and Sustainable Living (Real Goods Solar Living Sourcebook, 11th Ed)". You can order the catalog from The Real Goods Company, Amazon books or you can pick up a copy yourself in person at San Francisco's Ghirardelli Square, from the bookstore there called "Builders Booksource" (900 North Point Street, San Francisco, CA 94109 (415) 440-5773). This bookstore has a whole free-standing rack of shelves of books on Renewable Energy Technologies and Sustainable Living topics.  

The Real Goods Company website also has an on-line version of their catalog, in 2 forms, (1) a "Yahoo-like" directory called "Solar and Eco Information", and (2) an "index-like" directory called "Renewable Energy Catalog", which you can get to by clicking on buttons with the same names at the top of the homepage. 

(1) "Solar and Eco Information" has a topic named "Water Pumping, Storage and Treatment", with a further link for "Ask our staff...tough questions"
(2) "Renewable Energy Catalog" has a section named "Water", and link named "water pumping" - this link is probably your best bet for tracking down the pump, as the information on this page is comprehensive

The Real Goods Company also offers a "Design & Consulting Group" service (last time I checked, quite a few years ago, the rates were around $35/hr.). The group offers a robust "Integrated Design Process" methodology (similar to the way the Peace Corps scopes out a village's initial profile status to determine need). This is often well worth the fee, for you can just bring them your problem & they can work out the most expert solution, rather than you have to figure it all out yourself with more limited expertise from a myriad of options.

OK, that takes care of all the background info. What follows below are all the links to the forgoing:


Store Links:

The Real Goods Company, Hopland flagship store
http://www.realgoods.com/
http://www.realgoods.com/service/retail.cfm

Solar Living Institute; Workshops (overview, schedule, descriptions)
http://www.solarliving.org/index.cfm
http://www.solarliving.org/workshops.cfm
http://www.solarliving.org/schedule.cfm
http://www.solarliving.org/description.cfm

Solfest, 2003, free Workshop schedule
http://www.solarliving.org/solfest.cfm
http://www.solarliving.org/solfest2003.cfm
http://www.solarliving.org/WorkshopGridFinal.pdf

Real Goods Solar Living Source Book: Real Goods, Amazon
http://www.realgoods.com/shop/shop4.cfm?dv=4&dp=401&ts=2081075&kw=Solar%20Living%20Source%20Book
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0916571041/qid=1046905886/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/103-7051321-6834268

Builders Booksource; SF Store
http://www.buildersbooksource.com/cgi-bin/booksite
http://www.buildersbooksource-sf.com/



Water pump Links:

Catalogs online: (1) "Solar and Eco Information"; (2) "Renewable Energy Catalog" 
http://www.realgoods.com/
http://www.solareco.com/index.cfm
http://www.realgoods.com/renew/index.cfm

(1) "Solar and Eco Information" topic "Water Pumping, Storage and Treatment"
http://www.solareco.com/articles/info3.cfm
(2) "Renewable Energy Catalog" section "Water"; link "water pumping"
http://www.realgoods.com/renew/index.cfm
http://www.realgoods.com/renew/shop/list.cfm?dp=1900

"Design & Consulting Group" service; "Integrated Design Process" methodology
http://www.solardevelopment.com/index.html
http://www.solardevelopment.com/process.html

Update 1:

An organization website similar to Real Goods, called "The Sustainable Village", has a Projects page that includes an Africa section with an entry for Nigeria showing a listing that reads "Water Pumping Project" - here are the links:

The Sustainable Village - Fostering Appropriate Technology, Renewable Energy and Sustainable Development in Communities Internationally 
http://www.thesustainablevillage.com/

Africa > Nigeria > Water Pumping Project 
http://www.thesustainablevillage.com/projects/nigeria.html

Other site links of interest:

Products
http://www.thesustainablevillage.com/products/prod_category.jsp
Networking
http://www.thesustainablevillage.com/Net_working/net_working.html
Projects
http://www.thesustainablevillage.com/projects/index.html
Microenterprise
http://www.carebridge.info/tsv/microenterprise/
Services
http://www.thesustainablevillage.com/services/_services.html
Resources
http://www.thesustainablevillage.com/resources/_resources.html

Update 2: 

Gaviotas has chosen "The Sustainable Village" as a business partner to develop and offer to the world, the many unique Gaviotas Appropriate Technology ("AT")  solutions, as documented and pictured in the book, "Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World", which include "... ultra-efficient pumps to tap deep aquifers-pumps so easy to operate, they're hooked up to children's seesaws".

The Sustainable Village Microenterprise Slide Show's last 6 slides show the Gaviotas "AT" solutions.

Update 3: 

The Peace Corps' large collection of  Appropriate Technology ("AT")  solutions, designs and construction plans, developed over the years, have all been collected together on a set of CD's, called the Appropriate Technology Library (AT Lib). The AT Lib documents are all in Adobe Acrobat PDF format, which means they are viewable on most any computer and are easy to extract to, store on, and download from, an Internet  Website/Newsgroup storage area, such as the FOAO Public Newsgroup Files Area. 

A look at the "Complete list of books in the AT Library " reveals a section called "Water Supply and Sanitation" that includes coverage of water pump designs and construction plans on "Disk 12 Water Supply and Sanitation" and on "Disk 13 Water Supply and Sanitation Cont.". A popular design, for which construction plans, from readily available materials, are often provided, is for a "Hydraulic Ram Pump". 

A set of construction plans, in PDF format, for a "Hydraulic Ram Pump" have been found and uploaded to the FOAO Public Newsgroup Files Area "Peace_Corps_AT_Lib" folder, (inside the "CD_Disk_12_Water_Supply_and_Sanitation" folder, within the "Book_Water_Supply-Pumps" folder), which contains the file named "The_Construction_Of_A_Hydraulic_Ram_Pump.pdf"; here's a direct link to the folder containing the file: "Book_Water_Supply-Pumps".

Because the "Hydraulic Ram Pump" construction plans file is stored on a Internet Website/Newsgroup storage area, it can be accessed, viewed, downloaded and printed from any computer in the world with Internet Web access.  Such computers can now be commonly found around the world in many newly-formed "Cyber Cafés", which are typically coffee shops or community centers offering computers with high-speed Internet Web access for low hourly rental rates.  A list of African Cyber Cafés is maintained at the website "Internet Cafés Africa", which shows an entry that, for the Mali town of Bamako, there is located a Mali Cyber Café.

If the Mali people seeking the pump can get to the Mali Cyber Café, they can access the FOAO  Website/Newsgroup Files area and view the "The_Construction_Of_A_Hydraulic_Ram_Pump" document - if it suits their needs, they can download and print the file to begin construction immediately. If not, they can view other options in another part of the FOAO Website, the FOAO Newsgroup "Links" section which has a "Water_Pumps_For_Africa" folder which contains a link to this FOAO Website "Project: Water Pump for Africa" webpage you are currently reading, which contains all the information, sources and links we have so far gathered on the water pump project, spanning the spectrum of solutions starting from low-tech (and low-cost) on, ranging from "build-it-yourself-from-commonly-available-materials" approaches found in the Peace Corps Appropriate Technology Library (AT Lib) and "Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World" project, to more "off-the-shelf" solutions available from the Real Goods and Sustainable Village companies.  If the Malians find another solution that happens to be on a Peace Corps Appropriate Technology Library (AT Lib) CD, then that file can also be extracted to, and stored on the FOAO Public Newsgroup Files Area, for later access and download from the Mali Cyber Café. This approach lends itself to rapid access to designs, plans and solutions, with scalability in regards to economic resources - considering the aimed-for timeframe of this project being by May, due to an approaching drought, and the current date, as of the time of this writing, is April 29, we make just make it yet.

Update 4: 

Judah sent along an email from her friend Luc, regarding a candidate water pump from ApproTEC Appropriate Technology, for Judy for Mali, included with which is an impressive account of a successful micro enterprise from the pump. A Chronicle story, linked to below, notes "Martin Fisher...and...engineers...new design...the Super-MoneyMaker, a one-person, leg-powered irrigation pump...Fisher...sold the first $55 MoneyMaker micro- irrigation pump to a Kenyan farmer in 1996...The pump and other mechanical devices designed by Fisher have made 26,000 desperately poor Africans rich entrepreneurs, by the standards of their homeland. Farmers whose annual income was less than $120 have increased it to an average of $1,400. It has opened up their lives the way it would alter that of an American who started making $110,000 a year instead of $10,000.... Today 26,000 businesses there that use it generate $32 million in new profits and wages annually. Their total income - more than $50 million - is half a percent of Kenya's gross national product. In addition to employing family members, these new entrepreneurs have created 18,000 jobs. Over the past year, an average of 650 businesses started each month, 820 a month for the past three months...Once barely able to feed their children, the new entrepreneurs are now providing food for their families, sending their children to school, building homes, obtaining health care, starting other businesses and becoming role models...".

ApproTEC

Martin Makes a Middle Class...Stanford grad Martin Fisher has gone low-tech in search of solutions for Kenyan farmers -- San Francisco Chronicle

FOAO Resource: Wired Magazine "Low Tech Triumphs"...THE RAINMAKER..."Supermoneymaker" story

Update 5: 

Sustainable Village Microenterprise Slide Show slide 
"Microassembly Hand & Foot Powered Water pumping"


The Sustainable Village Microenterprise Slide Show slide titled "Microassembly Hand & Foot Powered Water pumping" (to get to this slide, click the show's "Next (right)" arrow 38 times) shows 5 solutions ranging from $9-35. These pumps are described on the Sustainable Village "Hand and Backup Pumps" webage, which you can get to by taking the following route:

Go to the Sustainable Village Products Page and select the link for Water. In the "Choose a Group" dropdown list select "Water Pumps", then click the button named "Go", then in the "Choose a Subcategory dropdown list select "Hand and Backup Pumps", then click the button named "Go".

An additional summary is available at the SV Water Pumps, Hand and Backup Pumps list webpage.

Here is a chart on the 5 pumps, as well as 2 models of the earlier reported ApproTEC MoneyMaker pump.

Update 6: 

The Sustainable Village offers a downloadable catalog with a chapter on water containing considerable current Appropriate Technology information on pumps and related gear. The collection covers pumps  powered by Hand/Foot, Wind/Gravity, Solar and also offers solutions in related areas including Treatment, Storage, Accessories and Distillers.

They also offer System Configuration Guides, including a "Water Pumping Configuration Worksheet", as online forms you can fill out with basic parameters and questions so that their "engineering and design staff will lend you their expertise and point the way to a solution...(and)...get back to you with...(their)... suggestions and comments".

Here are some excerpts and links from their site:

"Download our Latest Catalog...Sustainable Village 2002 Product Catalog (72 dpi version)...broken down...by chapter...(chapter on) Water (2.0 MB)..."

Sustainable Village Catalog

Technical Information

"
...we're also here to provide the technical information you need to achieve success. Whenever you have questions about appropriate technology...our engineering and design staff will lend you their expertise and point the way to a solution..."

System Configuration Guides


These forms describe the most important questions in designing and sizing some of the most common appropriate technology systems. The quick email format lets you send us your basic parameters and questions in just a few moments and makes it easy for us to get back to you with our suggestions and comments...Water Pumping...Water Pumping Configuration Worksheet...
"


Technical Information

System Configuration Guides

Water Pumping Configuration Worksheet

Project Task List: 

Methodology: Because FOAC does not have a formal business structure of managers, teams, task forces and the like, the current methodology is inspired by analogy to the Olympics "Starting the Games" mission  (which mission represents our given Project). A series of runners are stationed at 1 mile intervals ("Project Team Members"). An Olympics Committee Member (the Project Initiator) passes a baton (the current Project Task) to the 1st runner. The runner "runs the mile" (completes the Project task), then passes the baton to the next runner to run the next mile (complete the next Task), repeating this pattern until the last runner reaches the goal (Project Completion).  

The stage and status of a Project  over time is documented by "event entries" for Project Team Member, Project Task and Task Description/Notes, as documented below in the Project Task List Table: