Playpump - childs playground ’roundabout’
September 14, 2008
A Playground “roundabout” to power a borehole pump to provide clean water – the “PlayPump” benefits women and girls in particular who can spend hours each day fetching water. Surplus water sold to farmers for irrigation to provide funds for the Edu-POD to allow free schooling. In return the farmers provide grown crops to feed the children and allow food to be taken home.
Developed in 1997 by a socially responsible South African advertising company, Roundabout Outdoor, “PlayPumps” are innovative, low-tech devices that serve as both children’s merry-go-rounds and sources of rural water supply.
Installed directly above water wells at schools in rural areas, they harness the energy of children at play to supply villages with 1,400 litres of clean drinking water per hour into low maintenance storage tanks. This is a much faster and more reliable rate than any hand-driven pump can achieve.
Locally installed, often by black-owned micro-enterprises at average cost of $9,500 per pump, PlayPumps are an effective solution to one of rural Africa’s most pressing needs. The PlayPump business model recovers the costs of maintenance through commercial advertising sales from firms such as Unilever, Colgate Palmolive etc.
The storage tanks have also been used for public awareness messages such as HIV/AIDS prevention campaigns, thus extending the health benefits of the water pumps from access to clean water to alleviation of spinal problems to HIV awareness and prevention.
Background
In rural Africa, the lack of access to clean water is a serious on-going problem. Traditionally, village women and girls collect water at the nearest stream and then carry the containers filled with water back home.
This not only takes up a lot of time that could otherwise be spent in school or at work, but the water from such open sources is often not clean, and carrying such a heavy load can have serious health effects, causing severe headaches and spinal damage.