The topic issue of the article is the use of hand-pumps for the distribution of water in sub-Saharan Africa; while this is just one of many methods of supplying water it is one of the most important to those in developing and rural areas. It’s pointed out that the hand-pump is one of the cleanest, easiest, cheapest, and most reliable (year round operation) sources of water for sub-Saharan Africa. Open wells are more vulnerable to contamination and motorized pumps and piped schemes are more expensive and complicated to construct and maintain, especially in rural areas. There are several reasons hand pumps can fail. These reasons are: manufacturing failures, improper instillation, unknown geography, and mismanagement. First, many of these pumps
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This results in a cyclical problem of new hand pumps (some sixty thousand per year) being continually installed and existing ones being abandoned due to them failing. This has major economic implications, over the last twenty years approximately $1.2 billion has been lost due to this problem. The massive cost is not incurred from hand pump failures (which are rather inexpensive to repair), but rather borehole failures. The typical borehole in sub-Saharan Africa costs between $1,000 and $2,500 to drill, if drilled improperly it immediately becomes a sunk cost. It’s estimated that a $500 dollar investment in proper supervision and management of the drilling project can save $10,000 in borehole failures as a preventative measure. This affects 663 million people globally, as they still don’t have access to adequate water sources. Those affected are largely in the less developed and rural demographic categories, with eight out of ten people living in rural areas and nearly half (319 million people) living in rural sub-Saharan
This results in a cyclical problem of new hand pumps (some sixty thousand per year) being continually installed and existing ones being abandoned due to them failing. This has major economic implications, over the last twenty years approximately $1.2 billion has been lost due to this problem. The massive cost is not incurred from hand pump failures (which are rather inexpensive to repair), but rather borehole failures. The typical borehole in sub-Saharan Africa costs between $1,000 and $2,500 to drill, if drilled improperly it immediately becomes a sunk cost. It’s estimated that a $500 dollar investment in proper supervision and management of the drilling project can save $10,000 in borehole failures as a preventative measure. This affects 663 million people globally, as they still don’t have access to adequate water sources. Those affected are largely in the less developed and rural demographic categories, with eight out of ten people living in rural areas and nearly half (319 million people) living in rural sub-Saharan