The Playpumps are making a massive difference to communities around South Africa. The simple idea has children helping to generate clean drinking water.
Playpumps are an inspiring yet simple idea that is helping communities across South Africa. The concept was based on children’s playground ‘merry-go-rounds’. When a child spins the merry-go-round, it pumps water from underground up into a nearby tank. The tank then stores water and sends it down to a pump that the community can use to access clean drinking water.
Roundabout Water Solutions has an agreement with the South African Department of Water Affairs and is raising donor funds to supply rural communities, with clean drinking water.
The playground pumps have a positive chain of reactions when installed in a rural area. Firstly, young women are able to stay in school as they don’t have to travel long distances to collect water. The communities health spikes as they are no longer drinking unclean water. Children spend more time in school as their illnesses become less frequent.
“Prior to the installation of a PlayPump, each borehole is tested. Borehole tests comprise both chemical and bacteriological testing to ensure that the water is fit for human consumption; as well as a step-down test to establish the rate at which water can be drawn from the borehole without it running dry.”
The pumps also create local employment as maintenance teams are trained to repair any problems. The parts for the pumps are sent in free of charge and the community can continue to make use of the resource.
“Roundabout Water Solutions has helped to alleviate a small part of this problem by supplying over 640 schools and communities in South Africa, Lesotho and Malawi”
You can watch an episode of ED that goes into greater detail about each of the factors discussed above.
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