The Million Project

Rope Pumps for Africa

updated version by Reinder dd. March 23, 2007

The Chance to make a major difference in access to water and sanitation in Africa at unimaginably low cost

Abstract
The big idea is to use traveling students to provide water and sanitation in Africa. Stichting Demotech offers a technological solution to water and sanitation that has been tested and found successful around the world. Even in face of severly limited resources the innovative Demotech approach was able to create substantial and promising results. Demotech solutions can be disseminated throughout developing nations by engaging traveling youths with an interst in engaging in sustainable development work. In this way, sustainable tourism can be taken to a new level.
By developing an information package that can teach local people how to build water pumps and toilets from local materials, at locally affordable cost, traveling students can enjoy the wonders of Africa and save lives at the same time.
In this way, an unpredicable large amount of pumps and toilets can be constructed within a few years.

Reinder van Tijen, founder of "Demotech, design for self-reliance" (a foundation since 1976 and a long list of volunteers have worked to create technologies that are appropriate for sustainability and developement. The most fruitful of these designs have been the DemoUnits, theRopePump, the HydraulicRamPump and the BathroomToilet-Unit.

These designs distinguish themselve from all other development solutions because all people where ever in the world are able to produce the quality of industrial solutions but at costs affordable and means available to people in deepest poverty (less than 1 US$ per day). This is primarily because of the methods and materials used in building them. Demotech offers a way to build many designs, such as water pumps and sanitation in a way that local people can build them and pay for them themselves.

Stichting Demotech has recently lacked the means to carry their designs into developing nations. Because of the unusual approach of demotech to offer only information to local people in order to ensure maximum local empowerment and ownership, development funding has thus far been difficult to find. Demotech workers do not invest money locally, they only teach local people how to build. This is most important to Demotech's approach, as they expect people to be able to reproduce their projects locally, building more pumps and toilets after the visiting instructors have left.

This is an innovative solution which has proven very successful in Indonesia, Nicaragua, and Ghana (see Appendix 1). It is an untapped tool for development cooperation that works. The only thing that is missing is a system that gets the information about these water pumps to the local people in the world that need it.

As a solution for this problem, Demotech likes to set up a system of sustainable tourism, whereby young people are given the basic training and necessary knowledge to take an information package to rural areas in Africa. If we harness the thousands of youth that love to travel abroad, and the enthusiasm shown by these young people to help the poor people in the world and promote sustainability world wide, we can construct functioning and sustainable water pumps and sanitation units throughout the developing world.

The Project
A brief two year timeline outlines the stages of the project:

Logistics, Costs, and Impact
The most impressive aspect of this proposal is cost-benefit ballance.

Resources already available
Stichting Demotech supplies it's Technology, designs, and working space free of charge. All preparatory work, workshops, testing, and meeting spaces can be held at the Demotech-Lab in Maastricht. Demotech also offers the use of it's website and computers at minimum cost.

Demotech is rich with volunteers and students from Unversiteit Maastricht. These students, already well versed in Demotech's ideas and many with development experience, make a strong base of support, willing to become trainers and participants and do supportive work. This proposal is written with the full support of Stichting Demotech.

Students will be expected to cover their own travel costs when leaving for Africa. These students already make these trips, and are being offered a chance to do so with renewed purpose and a chance to make a real difference.

Costs
Much of the costs will go into creating the information package, and preparing the video, promoting the project and contacting NGOs. Professional skills will need to be employed to produce the video, train the trainers, and translate the information package. As well, the costs of travel and promotion should not be underestimated.

Total costs of the project for two years is estimated to be in the range of 20 000 euros.

A breakdown of costs can be seen in the Projected Budget.

Impact
As a direct implication, this project will produce 50 working water pumps, and 150 BathroomToilet-Units in Africa during the visit necessary to complete the information package.

Students traveling in Africa are estimated to stimulate the production of at least 100 water pumps and 300 BathroomToilet-Units each year. This number is an estmiate based on a minimum of 15 students participating and each visitning at least one local NGO.

As well, if past experience by Demotech is any guide, local NGOs will be able to reprocude the pump and toilet designs themselves, producing them in the local area long after the student passes on to other things. MOREOVER, local village communeties have been known to teach each other the same basic skills.

It is the experience of Demotech that these products are taken over by local people and reproduced autonomously. In this way, a few pumps and toilets can very well become 10 000 within the 2 year span of the project, as has well documented had happened in Indonesia. This number will conitnue growing as the project continues and reaches more regions. See Appendix for history of this success.

Summary
The main points of this project are as follows:

• Method
  • Engage Appropriate Technology
  • Engage Students involved in Sustainable Tourism
  • Send information packages with students to Local people and NGOs
• Required Inputs
  • Cooperation from Stichting Demotech
  • 20 000 euros in total inputs over 2 years
  • Voluntary Student Involvement
• Impact
  • Direct construction of at least 50 sustainable water pumps
  • Direct Construction of at least 150 BathroomToile-Units
  • Training and experience for Students in sustainability and Development work
  • Potential for local people to continue using and producing their own pumps and toilets WITHOUT FURTHER AID.