The Handpump

Despite world-wide efforts to achieve the global target of universal access to safe drinking water, 1.5 billion people - primarily the poor in the slums and villages of the developing world - are still deprived of this basic human necessity. An estimated 3.4 million people, mainly children, died during 1999 from diarrhoea and other water-related diseases. Millions more, mainly women, ruin their health carrying water to their homes from far-off rivers, lakes, ponds and other unprotected sources.

Yet, the closest, safest and least-expensive source of water for large numbers of these unserved people is often right beneath their feet. Unpolluted groundwater in sufficient quantities can be found in most areas of the world. What's more, there is a simple, inexpensive, hygienic, efficient and environment-friendly way to access it: the handpump.

Fitted over a drilled or a dug well, the handpump, without using electricity, reaches down to the depths of the earth, bringing safe water to the surface. The handpump has contributed immensely to health and hygiene benefits thus saving the lives of many children who may otherwise have perished to water-borne diseases. It has brought water nearer the homes of about 1 billion people world-wide, and has freed millions of women and young girls from the daily drudgery of walking several kilometres each day to fetch a pot of water.

The origins of the handpump can be traced back over centuries. But the models in operation today are the result of constant research and development aimed at creating state-of-the-art handpumps for different groundwater conditions. Simple to install, to use and to maintain, the modern handpump is an example of technology that is both appropriate and sophisticated.

Ironically, the handpump's apparent simplicity and relative low price have proved to be as much a liability as an asset. Dismissing it as a cheap and antiquated option, planners preferred more expensive alternatives. For many years, governments, and international donors have continued to invest in "modern" water supply and sanitation technologies. Their limited financial resources were allocated to technologies that require a higher investment per capita and are less sustainable.

In 1997, the Mangochi Declaration (issued in March 1997 after a HTN workshop in Mangochi, Malawi) stated that "of the average yearly investment of USD 13,000 million in the water and sanitation sector over the past 15 years, only about one-quarter was spent on low-cost technologies and approaches to serve the rural poor and deprived, low-income urban populations."

The investment strategies of international donors focussed on increasing the proliferation of taps, power pumps and pipes. Even the public health engineering agencies in developing countries were classically structured to provide and administer centralised piped water systems with household connections. These are impractical and unaffordable for many rural communities which might be situated far from main roads, whose households are often far apart and constructed from locally available natural materials. None of these conditions are conducive for pipe-laying or, however ideal it sounded, a tap in every home. Consequently many of these water systems are defunct and the rural people in such settings continue to rely on their traditional sources, all of which are now becoming increasingly polluted or drying up with the lowering of the water table.

By the 1960s, a few NGOs and bilateral and multilateral donors were beginning to promote low-cost and more appropriate technologies such as handpumps. But the turning point came with the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade (1981-1990), which had as its slogan "Water and Sanitation for All". Wells and boreholes with handpumps emerged as the most viable option now that it was apparent that past policies had left a legacy of expensive and non-functioning systems all over the world.

Although the Water Decade may have fallen far short of its goal, it was successful in initiating a new approach towards low-cost technology in international thinking. Developing countries and donors began recognising the importance of the handpump and its relevance for them. From the point of view of planners, beneficiaries and donors, one of the handpump's biggest plus points is that the costs for operation and maintenance are low enough to be affordable. It is also easy to operate and to repair. The handpump can best ensure the sustainability of drinking water supplies in developing countries particularly for low-income communities.

Consequently, in the past two decades, handpumps have become the principal technology for supplying water to over 1 billion people in rural areas in at least 40 developing countries.