Hybrid Merri-Go-Round Water Pump Saves Lives in Africa
by Karin Kloosterman, Tel Aviv 
on 03.31.08
Tell a kid to do some work, like clean their room or take out the garbage, and they roll their eyes and run in the other direction. If you’re living in a rural village in Africa, Mom might ask you to walk 2 miles for a bucket of water. What do you do?
Why go to play of course!
We imagine that kids everywhere are pretty much the same, that’s why we love the idea of PumpPlay, a children’s playground toy that pumps clean, safe water as they play.
Capable of producing up to 1,400 liters of water per hour from a depth of 40 meters, PlayPump, a South African NGO has so far donated and installed 1,000 pumps to communities in South Africa, Mozambique, Swaziland and Zambia.
New pumps are being planned for Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda.
And the project was first featured on TreeHugger back in 2005.
Time for an update:
Spinning on the merri-go-round, clean water is pumped from an underground well into a 2,500-liter tank which is built seven meters above the ground.
“A simple tap makes it easy for adults and children to draw water,” boasts PlayPump’s website, while “excess water is diverted from the storage tank back down into the borehole.”
Installed near schools, the PlayPump provides easy access to clean drinking water, it brings joy to children, and improves education, health and development.
TreeHugger related ::The Roundabout: Harnessing Kid Power to Pump Water! ::Plantware: New Meaning to Urban Jungle ::Afrigadget: The Can-Do Attitude Personified
More updates – A video from National Geographic on how PlayPump works:
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And to think, around here you have them removing merry-go-rounds that are designed like that because they are a death trap . .. I mean look at the thing, wait until some kid gets dragged around by the neck for a while and see how pump-tasticly fun it is.
Where are their helmets, and elbow pads, and lectures about how dangerous the thing is ruining all the fun? Oh wait, turning your fun in to work already ruined it anyway . . . may as well walk around the circle like a mule.
I don't think they were called merry-go-rounds when the donkeys were attatched to them.
There's a charity in the UK, One Water, which sells bottled water and donates all profits to an organisation which installs PlayPumps in Africa.
One Water bottles water locally and offsets the heavy distribution costs of branded mineral water. Greener bottled water and charitable goals.
I was in Sierra Leone for 2 monthes, some of it in the city, some up country in very rough conditions, but no matter where i was, one thing was for sure, the kids just wanted to play all day long! I just hope they have enough caloric intake to keep them going!
I can only imagine how much joy this must bring to the people of those villages. Water is so incredibly valuable to them. I'm also happy the children can enjoy themselves more.
greener bottled water? is that like being valedictorian at summer school?
In Potosi in Bolivia they used to roll silver using a wheel like this pulled by donkeys. They found that slaves from Africa were cheaper, so they got rid of the donkeys.
Yes - but donkeys are so much nicer than people. Very honest too. I prefer donkeys to people whenever possible.
I like the idea. These children and families have a very different life then what we do in our cozy houses and full bellies. To think that they could have to walk farther and carry all those heavy buckets of water further if they didn't have this merry-go-round. Just think of all the pain and injuries that could happen that way. Finding joy in the work you need to do as a child or an adult is commendable not condemnable.
The only real issue here is the safety of these pumps. Comparing people to donkeys because they choose a sustainable people powered option undermines those in the United States who would wiling choose to use people power rather than Diesel. Would you rather they contribute to the massive emissions we place on the environment. We should be installing these in the US and other OECD countries. Maybe, though, we can encourage a more safer design.
This is terrible.Lets keep these people in the dark ages by giving them a new 100 year old water system and then feeling good about it.Should we try it here?
Way I see it, without things like these, there isn't safe water, and these are far more cost-effective than expensive water treatment plants, thereby allowing them to be spread to more people. And why not? the kids are going to play anyway, so we might as well harness their play to help the people.
Since the mid 70's I have dreamt of - envisaged hundreds of Turbo Water Pumps in my home area of Transkei & KwaZulu-Natal - and other parts of Southern Africa.
I have personally witnessed women and children trekking for hours on end merely to collect 20 litres of water in plastic or galvanised steel buckets - most of it unsafe for human - animal consumption or crop use.
Being aware of the innumerable health risks - bacteria, water borne illnesses - bilharzia, sleeping sickness, cholera, dysentery, and so forth - I have always felt the need to provide safe water to these outlying areas of the undeveloped parts of our respective countries.
So, when the concept of The Play Pump was revealed - I became ecstatic to see one of my dreams become realised - albeit through the ingenious efforts of someone else.
Together with PlumpyNut - the inventors ofdf both products should be awarded the Nobel Prize of some sorts and their programmes granted UNDP/UNESCO funding - indefinitely ...