Drinking Water for Upland Communities

On the island of Negros Occidental most of the land is occupied by sugarcane plantations. The plantations are in the hands of a few rich landowners and with thousands of poor and exploited sugarworkers. With the high prices of sugar on the worldmarket, the plantations expanded up to the mountainous areas. The even higher areas were then taken by small farmers. These people are isolated from all basic services like water and electricity. Often these farmers or villagers have to go down steep hills to fetch water, a dangerous job especialy during rainy season. The only contact which these far flung communities have with government people is during campaigns for elections. Many then promise the people water. However they failed to serve. Most villagers lost hope for any of the services of the government. In the case of water they also think that it is impossible to get the water up to areas of 200 meters. In the absence of the government services some NGO's try to fill the gap.

Current status

AIDFI is already installing hydraulic ram pumps for the last 12 years. Some 200 ram pumps now supply some 30.000 persons with clean drinking water. The installations promote the technology itself. The demand is growing. In order to be able to cope up with the demand, AIDFI has trained installation teams in other provinces. There are communities which want to avail of a hydraulic ram pump but which don't have the funds for an installation. With this fund we plan to implement 6 complete installations.
AIDFI has perfected the technology. It has developed a local model with unique features. The most important part, the waste valve is moved by a door hinge, easily available in any hardware. Another feature is the steel to steel movement of the valve. This saves expensive gaskets. The checkvalve can be made from materials like old car tires. AIDFI has worked consistently on the development of the pump for years with the model having the same performance as the commerical ones.

AIDFI is a very serious organization and working very hard to become more and more self reliant. It works with low overhead budgets and knows how to maximize resources by applying durable but low cost techniques in its water systems.

The goal is to supply upland households, considered the poorest of the poor, with clean and safe drinking water. This water will give health benefits and create further developments like vegetable growing, animal raising, aquaculture, washing of clothes near the houses.

Goals

• 5 Ram pump systems installed and functional
• Supplying around 1500 persons with clean drinking water
• Set up 5 water associations
• Trained 10-15 local technicians
• Planted 2500 seedling of endemic trees

The hydraulic ram pump projects which AID Foundation implement are owned, operated and maintained by the communities. Before the technical intervention takes place, the community is socially prepared for the project. First some contacts are made, then at a later stage a general assembly is called for to organize an water association. Participation of the people is a vital part of the installation. Often hauling and pipe laying/burying is done by local labor. Also the association selects two or three local technicians before the start of the installation. They are involved in all aspects and no secrets are kept. The experience is that the local technicians after the installation are capable to operate, tune and repair the installation. At the end of the installation the technicians revceive a t-shirt with at the back the name ram pump technician. The association receives a complete toolkit needed for repair and maintance. At the same time the association is prepared for the management of the project, policies are established. A collection system and fees are also established. The fees are partially to pay for the local technicians, for eventual repair and maintenance and sometimes for the association to expand the services. AIDFI also organizes a meeting regarding the importance of protecting the water source itself, what is a pump without water. As a result of such meetings tree planting are organized. Initially 500 trees are planted but when the community is excited, more trees are facilitated.
Already twice AID Foundation organized a conference for the local technicians of all installed systems to exchange experiences. Not in a expensive place, but just the workshop of AIDFI serves as the venue for inspiration. In this way we exchanged indigenous solutions for maintence challenges. For example plywood as a cheap alternative for gaskets.