It seems to me we are dealing with a niche for donations, not a niche for the provision of water.

Still, you don’t come near to my favourite water story, which is nearer home. A Spanish charity had money left over from tsunami rebuilding (how this happened I don’t know since loads are still unhoused) and decided to spend it on a desalination plant (guess what country the providers of the desalination plant came from). This is in the wet zone of Sri Lanka, in an area where you only need to go down fifteen feet to hit the water table and which has a fairly good piped water system that is being upgraded (unnecessarily in my opinion) by a Dutch charity.

The project seems to have thankfully stalled, but I’m told the building for the plant is there near the police station.

I like some of the thinking in your comments – but I go back to one of my original points which is that the PlayPump fills a niche, it’s not the only solution and if you talk to WFP in Denver they’ll explain what that niche is – I assume you’re based in the USA.

That said, deep wells exist, rope pumps exist, diesel generators exist – all have their issues (as you point out) – however, no one to my knowledge has connected the media (and by ‘media’ I mean community messages ‘sponsored’ by a brand) component to the maintenance solution (or the text etc system) so perhaps that’s something that is worth exploring in a little more detail.

All the best

Duncan

4. That no time is spent ‘pumping’ water – it’s generated as children play

But as many have pointed out it’s not. What is happening is that the women are obliged to put in three or four times as much effort they would with a conventional handpump in order to push the roundabout round, and a single woman would find that even more difficult.

the fact that the pumps have a maintainence schedule funded by the billboard advertising

Are you suggesting that pumps in the middle of nowhere are going to get a significant amount of advertising revenue. If the advertising revenue model works, then set up a hoarding next to a normal pump.

That each pump carries a unique code, a text and freephone number so in the event of problem the community can contact the office to report it.

And how much would it cost to stick that information on a plaque on a handpump? (hint — you can do it in engraved granite for a tombstone for less than $10)

the level of water quality testing (this is part and parcel of the installation package)

And it could be part and parcel of the testing of a handpump. I believe the US advises the 15% of its population that uses well water to test their water every six months. Hardly onerous.

They can extract water from greater depths than e.g. afridevs and rope pumps – so the chances of getting a water strike, even when an aquifer is depleted, is better than other options.

The well in my garden goes down a hundred feet. The first forty feet are taken up by a large six foot diameter brick and cement lined normal well, like the one you see in pictures of old farmhouses. It lifts the water with an electric pump which you probably wouldn’t want as it would get nicked, but the point is it cost me a total of around $1,300

In my view they have a few advantages:
1. the level of water quality testing (this is part and parcel of the installation package)
2. the fact that the pumps have a maintainence schedule funded by the billboard advertising (accepting that we’re not 100% coverage yet, but it’s growing steadily) – interestingly one of the things we’re in discussions with WFP is their ‘riders’ maintenance programme which I like as it potentially dovetails into some other work we’re looking at in the micro-finance sector.
3. That each pump carries a unique code, a text and freephone number so in the event of problem the community can contact the office to report it.
4. That no time is spent ‘pumping’ water – it’s generated as children play
5. The tank panels carry community messages – eg hygiene information.
6. They can extract water from greater depths than e.g. afridevs and rope pumps – so the chances of getting a water strike, even when an aquifer is depleted, is better than other options.
And a couple of other things like I like is that the team can accurately report where they are, community size/structure etc.

These are the key things (when compared to funding handpumps or rope pumps) that I think are an advantage. I’m not saying they are the holy grail of systems, but I do believe, as I’ve said before, that we feel they fill a niche in the bigger water provision issue.

I am very open to other options and partnerships – and always looking for other projects to fund (we’re starting to fund filtration systems in Indonesia), so if you have anything that you’d like to propose, please do get in contact.

Hope that helps, but if you do have any more questions, please do let me know.

All the best

Duncan

I’ve seen a lot of people knocking these pumps – so are fair knocks, some less so, but they do have advantages over other systems such as hand pumps.

Perhaps you’d be able to list a single advantage these pumps have.

In terms of history, Roundabout Outdoor (based in South Africa) created the original roundabout powered ‘pump’ – and they still do today what they always did – work with governments and local communities to install pumps into schools and communities.

Global Ethics Limited sells a range of One ‘products’ and services which fund like for like problems – One water funds water projects, One condoms funds HIV projects, One toilet role funds sanitation projects etc etc.

When we were looking for a ‘water’ partner back in 2005/6 we spoke to a number of larger NGOs, but none of them could offer the levels of transparency and sustainability that we wanted. (I’ve seen enough failed pumps to have this high up on my tick list and have seen charity money ‘mis-directed’ in the past).

Roundabout powered water pumps provided an innovative solution to these problems – and were also able to tick a number of other boxes that other partners couldn’t. As a side note, we review our partnerships every 12-18 months and we’re still sticking with the original idea.

Due to an promised influx of American money the pumps were rebranded ‘PlayPumps’, the US backed website was produced and the ‘international’ name applied.

Whilst we, and the Roundabout Outdoor team have been going about our daily business, nothing much has changed except the US component has decided to work (probably more sensibly due to locality and time zones) with Water For People who are based in Colorado. The (US) PlayPumps website continues to function and donations continue to fund certain elements of the programmes because this made sense.

I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Ned Breslin from Water For People and am a huge fan of their work – of which roundabout powered pumps form part. I am absolutely sure that we’ll work together on a wider range of water and sanitation projects, but at this stage their plans are in place and they don’t want to add more money to the pot (this is one of the reasons I admire Ned and WFP – they have a vision and a strategy and they execute against it).

For me, the debate extends around many other issues, some of them highlighted here – cost, sustainability. testing of water quality, suitability, maintenance etc etc. and I’m still of the opinion, that roundabout powered pumps have a niche in the water debate – and that is as part of a portfolio approach and in or in close proximity to, schools.

I’ve seen a lot of people knocking these pumps – so are fair knocks, some less so, but they do have advantages over other systems such as hand pumps.

I am always open to funding new projects so if anyone has any specific proposals they want me to look at, or wants to come and talk face to face, then my email, or door, is always open.

I hope that answers some of the questions raised, but if people do want to ask anything specific please do let me know.

All the best

Duncan