Pump Aid - Water for Life

As we come up to the hundredth pump we have sponsored via Pump Aid, it was a real privilege to be invited to their AGM in Malawi, and to see the pumps in action. Pump Aid have now installed over 3,000 pumps in Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi, and are now embarking on a sanitation programme.

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Yes, that’s me in the video – the guy with the Irish suntan – that wants “to stay here all day”.

(Please note that all video and pics were taken on my mobile – so please excuse the quality)

To begin at the beginning, right from the moment we landed at Blantyre, we knew that things would be different. Searching for your luggage on the tarmac under a hot sun, after 17 hours of flying, is not fun. Particularly when you don’t find it.

Without bags, we headed into town – through the suburban township.

Even when you are wondering where you can buy suntan lotion in Africa – because yours has mysteriously disappeared together with the bag it was in – it helps to admire the blue beauty of the Jakaranda tree.

… And to absorb the first shocks of one of the poorest countries in the world, where average life expectancy is now less that 30 … and falling by the year, due to poverty and AIDS.

After the Pump Aid AGM, we headed for a remote village about an hour from Blantyre. We were greeted enthusiastically .. Malawi prides itself on being the “warm heart of Africa”

We were first shown a finished pump, and Ian Thorpe, Pump Aid’s founder, explained how it works. Ian is a real visionary, and a gifted “social entrepreneur”

In addition to providing a reliable supply of clean water, the pump also is used for small scale irrigation. In this village, they were growing beans.

And this is what they had beforehand. Really vile. Dirty water is the no. 1 cause of illness in Africa – even worse than AIDS.

Then Ian took us to see a pump being constructed. The well is dug by the villagers beforehand, and lines with local bricks and sand. Not only does this secure their full involvement in the project, it means that each pump only costs £200.

The actual pump in installed in a single day. When the team arrive, they mount the handle mechanism …

A rope with a series of washers is fed through a long plastic pipe.

These little washers, about 1m apart, is what will scoop the water up from 20m-30m below – where the supply is permanent and the water is clean.

The washers go down outside the pipe, and up inside, turning in that concrete block at the end.

Then the pipe goes down the well, the rope is threaded around the wheel, and there follows a delicate fitting of an outlet pipe at the top.

The end result looks like this.

And here comes the fist gush of water. Listen to how our polite European applause contrasts vividly with the excited joy of the Malawian women!

Now the singing really starts to get going.

While the well is covered. This keeps the water clean.

And now the party is really in full swing ….Listen to how it’s really warming up ….

And needless, to say, your present correspondent joined in … but had the good grace to not video it!

Finally, a special word of thanks and admiration to Karen Mercer, who has voluntarily coordinated Pump Aid sponsorship in the UK for the past 7 years.

If you would like to donate online to Pump Aid, you can do so on www.pumpaid.org

Where else will a £ go so far … and last for decades?

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