Elephant pumps and toilets in Northern Malawi

Malawi is amongst the world’s poorest countries ranked in the bottom 10% in the Human Development Index (UNDP 2007/08). 82% of the population live in rural areas. An on-going national water point mapping project, indicates that only 57% of the rural population have access to safe water. For sanitation estimates are between 15%-30%. As a result water-related diseases, including dysentery and typhoid, are common; a problem exacerbated by the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS which has affected 15% of the rural population.

Goals overview

Improve health of 1500 people in communities in rural Malawi by establishing sustainable supplies of clean, productive water and adequate sanitation. Improve local diet by planting nutrition gardens. Sustainability is ensured by training locals to maintain the facilities, by giving agriculture training to maintain the nutrition gardens, and by training in health and hygiene education to retain healthy behaviour.

Current status

The Pump Aid Malawi country office has already identified communities to be part of the pilot phase in Mzimba. Site identification was done with traditional authority chiefs, ensuring full community engagement. Pump Aid works with the Ministry of Forestry to ensure efficient tree planting, and has also been delivering agriculture workshops.

Project plan

The Elephant pump is a low cost, sustainable rope and washer hand pump that can provide a community of 250 people with 40 litres of water per person per day, enough for domestic and productive use.

The Elephant toilet is a pit latrine that is dug by the community, using home made un-burnt bricks for the walls and a thatched roof. An old plastic can and ball point pen tube and lid provides the hand washing system which uses Seso, a naturally occurring soap plant with antiseptic properties. Pump Aid provides the elephant toilet concrete slab which uses just one bag of cement and incorporates a urine diversion channel which lengthens the life of the pit, with urine diversion enriching a compost pit behind the toilet that can be used as a fertilizer. When the pit is full the slab can be removed and reused, making it a toilet for life. A fruit tree can be planted into the old pit, making use of the rich soil.

To improve health further and provide a source of income generation alongside every pump, a nutrition garden is established, which is irrigated using water from the pump. Productive trees are also planted to combat deforestation, improve soil cover and increase re-infiltration rates when rains come, improving the re-charge of aquifers to ensure the long term sustainability of ground water supplies.

Once sites for elephant pumps are identified, the community makes some preparatory work to the wells, with assistance from our teams. Once this is done the pump building team arrives with key materials, such as the inner wheel and outer casing. The elephant pump is built with community members and only takes a few hours. For the elephant toilets, 4 will be completed by our sanitation team in each community, transferring key skills and knowledge. The remaining toilets are then built by the community themselves, with the toilet slabs provided by Pump Aid. This work is followed up with health and hygiene education. Nutrition gardens and tree planting happen after the installation of elephant pumps and toilets in communities, along with agriculture workshops.

Expected outcomes

• 4 nutrition gardens and 800 trees planted
• 36 people recieve training in pump maintenance,
• 10 sanitation facilities at schools
• 36 people recieve health, hygiene and agriculture education

The pump is built using local materials some of which are provided by the communities who are also involved in the building of the pump. The pump is easily maintained by members of community who receive maintenance training workshops in which they learn how to make the rope and washers from plants and scrap plastic.

Productive trees are also planted to combat deforestation, improve soil cover and increase re-infiltration rates when rains come, improving the re-charge of aquifers to ensure the long term sustainability of ground water supplies.

Having the communities involved in all aspects of the building of pumps and toilets along with training workshops ensures ownership of the resources and that knowledge has been transferred, ensuring no further reliance on outside help.