Where We Work
Pump Aid currently operates in 3 African countries; Zimbabwe, Malawi and Liberia, and has future plans to move into 5 neighbouring African countries in the next 8 years. There is also a UK office situated in London, which leads on all fundraising, communication and advocacy development.
Our programmes in Africa provide rural communities with access to clean water and improved sanitation provisions. Pump Aid provides maintenance workshops to ensure all community members are trained to maintain the Elephant Pump and Elephant Toilet, and also offers health and hygiene education in partnership with locally trained medics.
Click here to see our programme partners
ZIMBABWE
Pump Aid was founded in Zimbabwe in 1999 and has been successfully operating in the country ever since. Pump Aid works with locally based partners, including the Department for International Development (DFID) to improve livelihoods and reduce the spread of diseases within vulnerable communities. The Elephant Pump, which has provided over 1 million people with access to clean water is based on a 2000 year-old Chinese design that the Pump Aid team adapted to make it stronger and more durable, using materials that are locally available in remote rural sub-Saharan African communities.
To date, over 4,000 Elephant Pumps have been installed in Zimbabwe, providing access to water for over 1 million people. The Elephant Toilet has been piloted in the eastern province of Manicaland since 2008. Over the next five years Pump Aid will work in partnership with local communities and other NGOs to install ten thousand Elephant Pumps and a similar number of demonstration toilets to reach around 2.5 million new people in the rural areas with some assistance in the peri-urban areas.
Around a thousand nutrition gardens will also be established to demonstrate how significant production can be achieved with a limited supply of water during the long dry season.
Zimbabwe Country Facts
|
Population of Zimbabwe |
11, 392, 629 |
|
Life Expectancy |
45.77 Years |
|
Urban population |
37% |
|
Total water supply coverage |
85% |
|
Total sanitation coverage |
68% |
Pump Aid Zimbabwe Results
- Pump Aid was founded in Zimbabwe in 1999
- The first ever Elephant Pump pilot programme began in 1996 at Nyazika homestead in Mutasa district – the pump is still working today
- Pump Aid has installed over 4,000 Elephant pumps in Zimbabwe
- Over 1 million people have been provided with access to clean water through Pump Aid technologies
- Around 95% of our Elephant Pumps are working at anytime one time
Pump Aid's Operational Districts in Zimbabwe
Chivi, Masvingo, Zaka, Bikita, Mberengwa, Chipinge, Mutare, Mutasa, Mashonaland East, Mashonaland West, Chiundura, Kwekwe, Gokwe North, Gokwe south
MALAWI
Pump Aid started a pilot programme in Malawi in 2006, and due to the success and demand of this programme decided to set up a fully functioning country programme in 2008. Since then the programme has provided over 1000 Elephant Pumps to communities in rural Malawi, and significantly improved sanitation facillities, including health and hygiene education.
Over the next five years, Pump Aid plans to install an additional ten thousand Elephant Pumps and twenty thousand demonstration Elephant Toilets reaching an additional 2.5 million people. This will leave one more year of full scale operations in Malawi before the target population is reached for that country. The exit strategy will incorporate the establishment of a micro-credit funded continuation of pump construction and informal employment by the community of former Pump Aid staff to assist with any major repairs.
Malawi Country Facts
|
Population of Malawi |
15,028,757 |
|
Life Expectancy |
50.03 years |
|
Urban population |
19% |
|
Total water supply coverage |
76% |
|
Total sanitation coverage |
60% |
Pump Aid Malawi Results
- The Elephant Pump pilot programme began in 2006, following the success of this full operations in Malawi were set up in 2008
- Pump Aid has installed over 1000 Elephant pumps to communities in Malawi
- Provided safer sanitation provisions to 23000 people
- Pump Aid developed its first Nutrition Garden and Tree programme in Malawi, creating a model platform for other programmes
- Over 270,000 thousand people have been provided with access to clean water in Malawi through Pump Aid technologies since 2009
- Around 95% of our Elephant Pumps are working at anytime one time
Operational Districts in Malawi
Chitipa, Karonga, Rumphi, Mzimba, Nkhatabay, Nkhotakota, Lilongwe,
LIBERIA (Pilot programme)
Pump Aid was approached by the Universal Hope Initiative to provide training for former child soldiers from Liberia who had fled their homes during the war and were at that time developing a number of practical skills at a training institute in a refugee camp in Ghana. Pump Aid’s CEO, Ian Thorpe, visited the refugee camp and interviewed nearly a hundred former child soldiers who were about to be expelled from Ghana, and forced to return to Liberia. He met with a number of organisations in Liberia to discuss current activities that were being undertaken. It became evident from extensive research and the discussions held that Pump Aid’s approach and technology could make an enormous impact in Liberia.
Pump Aid has been working with a number of strategic partners on this programme since setting up the pilot programme in 2009. The aim is to link post conflict communities with former child soldiers who are trained to build Elephant Pumps and to establish improved sanitation. The planned scale of the two year pilot which runs through to March 2011 is small, with around one hundred pumps to be built in Johnsonville which is a village cluster one hour from the capital city Monrovia. The leader of this pilot is a young Liberian woman with a masters degree in development who will be working towards the Liberian programme branching off from Pump Aid to form an independent local organisation. This may then provide one model for Pump Aid’s training/seeding programme.
Liberia Country Facts
|
Population of Liberia |
3,441,790 |
|
Life Expectancy |
41.84 years |
|
Urban population |
37% |
|
Total water supply coverage |
17% |
|
Total sanitation coverage |
7% |
Operational Districts in Liberia
Montserraddo is a County in which we generally operate. Within that County we operate in the following Areas Johnsonville,Caresburg and Virginia.
South Africa, Training Programme
In addition to the core programme in Zimbabwe and Malawi, Pump Aid has been invited to establish projects in over 20 other African countries. Pump Aid cannot tackle all of these opportunities via direct implementation, and has already started seeding activities with a pilot programme in Liberia. With adequate training of local partner organisations, it is hoped that this programme will grow and branch off. Pump Aid also intends to establish a pilot programme in South Africa which would lead on to seeding and training of partners in that country. In order to respond to the demand from other countries across Africa, a training department will be established during 2010.
Pump Aid recognises that some other organisations already have relevant skills and potential, once trained, to implement Pump Aid’s technologies and approach within the communities where they are working. These are communities that Pump Aid could not rapidly reach through gradual expansion of direct implementation model. Over 100 million people in sub-Saharan Africa alone could benefit enormously if they had access to the technologies and approaches which Pump Aid currently provides in Malawi and Zimbabwe.
To widen its impact and meet this urgent need, Pump Aid is developing a structured training programme to teach others how to implement Pump Aid’s technologies and approach. This will provide other organisations with new approaches that they can implement within their own development programmes. Pump Aid hopes to learn from the skills and experiences of these other organisations and will continue to refine and develop its own technologies and approach to ensure the best results for rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa.
Please email programmes@pumpaid.org for further information.
