210 88PU WITHOUT WATER - IRC · and catchment areas must be done to collect more water during the rains to maintain sub-soil water level during summer. Flowing of rain water into

210 88PU

WITHOUTWATER

F. RYAN

SATPRAKASHAN.2)0-

10

PUMPS WITHOUT WATERMisconceived Water Policy

FELIX RYAN

"There is only a finite amount of fresh watercirculating throughout the planet. More than97 percent of the earth's surface water belongsto the oceans, leaving only a small percentagefor drinking water and irrigation."

-UNDP 1986 Annual Report.

The poor will remain poor if they depend on thetechnology of the rich.

SATPRAKASHAN SANCHAR KENDRA,INDORE, INDIA 1988

© Felix Ryan

Appropriate Technology Information Centre(International)8 West Mada St., Srinagar Colony.Saidapet, Madras - 600 015INDIA

(Division of Ryan Foundation, registeredpublic charity)

Published bySatprakashan Sanchar Kendra,Indore, India 452 001SSK Book No. EB 037, 1988

Printed bySatPrachar Press, Indore,

iif

to

Dr. P.C. AlexanderGovernor, Tamilnadu

who shaped my career andthe development ofso many countries.

Foreword

PREDICTION

About 97 percent of the total water availablein our planet is in the salty sea and out of theremaining 3 percent of fresh water that is avai-lable for human consumption 2 9 percent is in theform of polar icecaps and only 0.1 percent freshwater is really available to sustain life in ourplanet.

Water scientists estimate that in the United Statesof America about 21 billion gallons of groundwater in excess of what gets back into the soilis removed every day, or only half of what ispumped out every day is replenished and inEurope only one third of what is removed everyday is replenished. It looks as though before theend of this century humanity will be sucking theearth dry and drinking water will become a ratio-ned and taxed commodity under political, natio-nal and international control and wars will befought between countries, not for land, gold orpower but for drinking water. The day is not faroff under our present day ruthless system of con-suming and wasting water while the population ison the increase demanding more water which ismore than a basic human need.

(ii)

It is the prediction of this author that water isbound to become more scarce and costly in the21st century - costlier even than oil and manynations that errect rigs and drills for oil willsoon be drilling for water off shore. The timewill soon come when scientists will realise thathumanity has necessarily to depend on sea waterfor its survival; that simple evaporation and con-densation of sea water by solar rays is the onlytrue solution to the water problem of our planetand it is not advanced but appropriate techno-logy that can save humanity from peril.

28th May 88 Felix Ryan.

PART — ONE

Pumps Without Water

Walking with a team of UN experts in Bunumbu,Sierra Leone, where we were promoting a"growth centre", we noticed several, India MarkII pumps. When this pump was developed in theMechanical Engineering Research and Develop-ment Organisation (MERADO) of the Govern-ment of India in collaboration with the WHOand UNICEF I was on the Advisory Board ofthis Organisation. So when my team spoke inappreciation of this pump I told them that it wasan excellent improvement on the traditionalpump and very good for city slums and villagesneaT urban centres but not for remote Bunumbu.No handpump works after four or five monthsin backward areas and I warned them that ifthose pumps were more than six months old theywould not work. Sure enough, it was so. Thegroup tried the pump and confirmed my predic-tion. No technical device, however, "appropriate"can go on functioning without proper care andattention. I have been testing Mark II pumps in

2 MISCONCEIVED WATER POLICY

several Villages in many developing countriesonly to find them in-operative. Just behind myresidence and within a mile from MERADO, /stands a Mark II pump which is inoperative forover two years, because the children spoilt it. \

Much is written about the efficiency and"appropriateness" of Mark II but the reportsthat enter the press relate to pumps less than sixmonths old, to those in and around urban citieswhich get some care, or in better developed vil-lages where spare parts and mechanics are availa-ble. Usually, when a washer or a bolt gives waythere is no replacement in most places and wherethere is replacement there is no mechanic or tools,or the mechanic demands much money andtherefore the Community does not engage himbut goes back to the traditional source of con-taminated water. Several encouraging reports re-late to pumps in India, where the pump itself andthe spares are made, and can be obtained if onereally tries. But what about pumps in Africa orthe Indian Ocean and Pacific Islands where evenwashers, nuts and bolts are not made? Poorcountries have import restrictions and what theyget under aid programmes is not carefully safe-guarded, stored and administered. Raw materialsand machine spares disappearing from office-premises, factories and store houses is a common

PUMPS WITHOUT WATER 3

occurrence in the African and other developingcountries and good administration and propercontrols are what these countries are yet to learnand practice.

The main reason for the pumps break-down, more than want of spares and mechanicsand supervisory control, is that they become aplay thing for children. One can see commonlyurchins pumping and splashing water whilesmaller children filling them with sand, stones orsticks. Their parents want them to play and believethat it is the responsibility of those who installedthem to maintain them.

Reports Maggie Black in UNICEF News,Issue 114, "85 percent of the pumps went out ofaction almost as soon as the drilling engineer leftthe neighbourhood and they (people) went backto using the open wells in the vague expectationthat the engineers would come back and mendtheir pump some day." She continues, "It isessential to maintain the pump in working order,otherwise there is no chance that the habits andattitudes of several families can be definitivelychanged." But changes in habits and attitudes inthese countries is not something which can bebrought about in our life time.


In the meantime the emphasis should notbe on tube wells, borewells and India Mark IIpumps but on the provision of open wells, lakes,ponds, rain-water catchment areas and deepeningthe existing ones. More dams will have to be builtand ground water resources must be recharged bymaking broad boreholes scientifically.

Open wells dug inside dry rivers, ponds,and catchment areas, need not be very deep andmost of them retain atleast some water duringthe dry season.

Interconnection of existing rivers and lakesand catchment areas must be done to collect morewater during the rains to maintain sub-soil waterlevel during summer. Flowing of rain water intothe sea through rivers must be arrested as far aspossible. It should be drained into catchmentareas, ponds and dry rivers. This was the basicidea of Vilasa Rao Salunke of Maharashtra, India,who succeeded in controlling much of the flowinto the sea through rivers, and diverting anddraining the water in the land. To promote hiseffort he introduced his "Pani-Panchayat idea(water by people's management) which is sosuccessful that it is now drawing wide attention.

Even if one has to dig 100 meters to hitthe water table as in Coimbatore or Cuddapah in


south India it is better to spend on open wellswhich will stay trouble free and serve the com-munity.

The 'Tara' deepset pump which waspromising four years back in Bangladesh is nowunsatisfactory as the water table has fallen verylow and many pumps have gone out of use. Main-tenance is a big problem in this poor country.

Many types of Wind Mills are also notsuited and one can see thousands of them standinginoperative like skeletons of dead giants. However,Windmills to pump water from open wells withcanvas or metal buckets seem satisfactory. Thereis not much to go wrong in this system and smalltroubles can be easily noticed and rectified. Howeffective the take over of photo valtaic cells whenthe wind drops on these bucket lifters is to beresearched and improved. (The writer likes to drawthe attention of the reader to his invention knownas, "Ryan's water gate" which lifts water at Zerooperational cost from open wells to over-headtanks in canvas buckets not by the force of windor solar energy but by a wicket gate beside the wellused by people and school children. For everyturn of the gate a bucket of water drops into theoverhead tank and from there led into huts byPVC tubes. This invention was commended and


broadcast by the BBC, London, in 1982 undertheir, "Hullo Tomorrow" programme).

Another way of taking water to peoplewhich is not usually done is by digging canals toallow sea water to enter the land under lock andsluice control. People can be asked to contributefree labour for an hour daily and dig half Km.every day and they will be happy to do so to takewater to their colonies and homes.

When the British ruled India, during daysof extreme drought they employed thousands ofvillagers to dig a canal and connected Andhrawith Madras coast and this 420 Km. Buckinghamcanal, was made navigable for country boats andsteam-launches and all along its course landswere cultivated. Sea water loses some of its salinityas it flows some miles into the land. But evenwhen the water is saline trees like the casurinaacasia, palmirah, the dry zone wonder tree called,prosopis Juliflora, sea weeds, etc. can be grown toprovide occupation, fuel wood, fibre and edibleoil-bearing nuts for people.

Water that is taken inland can be solarevaporated and condensed as it is now beingdone in some African Countries on a Commercialscale. In Somalia, where I worked for the ILO andthe refugees, experiment in Kudha to convert sea


water into fresh water in solar stills was initiallysuccessful and produced 400 litres of water perday over its estimated capacity but the projectwas mismanaged even during its constructionand therefore failed. However, the experiencegained in Kudha is adequate to make similarprojects succeed in other places. In Gujarat, India,a similar project has been producing excellentresults for the past several years and separatingsaline water from salt, serving double purpose.Salt water lakes and ponds may also be built forfish and weed cultivation.

The solar water still developed by theMumgappa Chettiar Research Centre (MCRC)in Madras, is a very cheap device which has beenfield tested and can be used by individual familiesto convert sea water into drinking water on afamily scale. The poorest family can afford andmaintain it. •

Depending more on sea water and less onsub-soil water is necessary because of the gradualdepletion of the ground water in many countriesmaking shallow handpumps inoperable. Bangla-desh, one of the poorest countries of the world,is now facing this grave disaster.

Yet another good approach to take waterto people is to dam water flowing away from the


hills to waste and destruction, regulate and lead itinto man-made canals to dry or desert areas. Inthis regard, the world has to take note of the multi-million massive project called the Indira GandhiCanal project in Rajasthan that is underway forthe past 30 years financed by the State Government,Central Government and foreign agencies. Theproject is taking water of the Ravi — Beas fromthe foot-hills of the mighty Himalayas to theThar desert and it is a Herculean task. Just toreport one aspect, on an average daily in May,1983, nearly 44,000 labourers, 3,000 donkeys and5,000 camels were employed at the canal site, fed,clothed and sheltered by the project administra-tion.

There is no gainsaying that what has beenachieved on the canal front is no mean achieve-ment despite the failures, pitfalls, delays andsoaring costs beyond estimation frequently pointedout by critics. Thousands of women and childrenwho used to tread 15 to 20 Kms. for a pitcher ofwater are now getting potable water where theylive.

The water from the Hills has already madeits impact on the desert districts of Bi Kaner,Barner, Jodhpur, Ganganagar and Jaisalmer.Several villages have sprung up where there was


no habitation for centuries. A large number ofagro-based industries are also seen in the bene-fitting areas which now produce plenty of fruitsand oil seeds and Forestation is going on. Whenthe project is completed 20 years from now it willgive plenty of water for million people for amillion years.

Reports Co-operation South No. 2, 1987,"Like the Mark II, the Maldev pumphead reliedon fitted metal bearings which suffered rapiddeterioration and were difficult to properly re-place at the village level. (This confirms what hasbeen said in the forgoing pages).

"Working with local manufacturers andDu Pont Company, a technical team in Nairobiproduced a modified Maldev design featuringinjection moulded plastic bearings. Workingthrough other design problems with the Malawipump, the Kenyan team began field testing theAFRIDEV pumphead proving that the plasticbearing concept could be cheaper to maintain andeasier to repair at village level."

The report continues, "According to WorldBank Regional Project Officer, David Grey, theAFRIDEV system represents a major conceptualbreakthrough because, it is designed to exploitthe benefits of modern materials and technologies,

10 MISCONCEIVFD WATER POLICY

especially, plastics. It is suitable for local manu-facture in developing countries. It's easily main-tained using minimal skill and few tools. Itfeatures a universal small diameter, long strokecylinder for all well depths, simplifying spare partsrequirements and minimising stress forces."

"The total cost of the complete pumpassembly is less than US $ 400, and most of thebelow ground components for the system aremade of standard PVC plastic which is readilyavailable in Kenya and other East African coun-tries. The cost of locally produced replacementbearings is only US $ 4 for a complete set."

It is to be questioned that when hard metalparts cannot stand the ware and tear of the pumpsin the villages how plastic can stand it. Most ThirdWorld countries do not manufacture plastic gra-nules and where they are made the quality is verypoor and the cost high. Even in India, with all heradvanced technology the quality of plastics isvery poor. Indian plastic consumer goods, indus-trial and automobile parts are very flimsy andshort lived. The costliest and best quality plasticwater taps made in India, for instance, do notlast for more than 3 or 4 months if used daily.

The report cited states that standard PVCplastic is readily available in Kenya and other


East African countries. True, it is available inKenya but not in other African countries, (otherthan South Africa). A good majority of Africanand other Third World countries cannot affordto import these plastic components. In Somalia aPVC garden hose pipe was not available to waterthe vegetable garden promoted for the refugees in1984 and we had to stitch canvas like a pipe (tube)to serve our purpose.

The report states that the total cost of thecomplete pump assembly is less than US $ 400,that is, more than the annual income of most ofthe families in many Third World countries. It iscommon knowledge that more than half the worldlives below the poverty line.

The report further states, that the cost oflocally produced replacement bearings is ,onlyUS $ 4 for a complete set. This is more than 2days wages of a labourer in the Indian and manyThird World cities,.

However the reality is that plastics is notat all a suitable substitute for metal componentsin hand pumps. If plastic components are intro-duced it will only encourage exports of plasticcomponents from the advanced countries to their


advantage and detrimental to the developmentof the Third World. Replacement of parts will bemore frequent than metal parts. It will result tnmaking the poor countries further indebted tothe donor countries.

Reports David Spark in the UN paper,Development Forum— Jan-Feb 88: "Pumps runfor thousands of hours, "they are run with sandand kiesulguhr (earthly deposit) added to thewater. This is because, although gravel is packedround a borehole's lining to keep out sand; it stillusually gets in and attacks the working parts."David concludes :"Unfortunately, the difficulties arestill not over. Plastic-made rising mains, throughwhich water is brought to the surface, have beenfailing. They are stretched and compressed as thepump operates, and they are subject to shock ifthe pump handle thuds down."

As already argued the very concept ofproviding hand pumps to the Third World isbasically impractical. There has to be a radicalchange to the approach to providing drinkingwater to the world of thirsting people. The poorwill remain poor or become poorer if they aregiven the technology of the rich with materialsmade in the west.

PART — TWO

Pumps or Open Wells ?

There is no multilateral "quick fix" and lastingsolution to the water agony of the drought riddendeveloping Countries. When my paper "pumpswithout water" was sent to National and Inter-national Agencies concerned with water develop-ment there was a storm of controversy in manyquarters. Perhaps the controversy arose becauseI brought out only financial and maintenancereasons for the failure of hand-pumps and notthe political, communal and religious conflicts.

After several years of personal investiga-tion in many Third world Countries I had said inmy earlier paper that in most of those Countries, ametal item cannot be easily obtained in ruralparts — not even a table pin or a washer andThird World Countries do not have a "machineor maintenance culture" to take proper care of,and benefit from, hand-pumps and bore wells.Economic Times dated 21.08.85 reports: "Accord-ing to the Managing Director of the NationalBank for Agriculture and Rural Development,

14 MISCONCEIVED WATFR POLICY

90 percent of the existing electric and diesel pumpsets installed for irrigation purposes are defectiveand running at 50 percent efficiency and below,and it is adding to the cost of cultivation andlowering profitability." Therefore, the waterproblem should be solved less by hand-pumpsand more by open wells, deepening rivers andcatchment areas, arresting rain water running towaste into the sea and most important of all, bydigging canals with lock and sluice arrangement,where costal inland is not more than about 20 feetabove sea level (usually it is less than ten feet).Sea water can be desalinised both by expensivehigh technology and by poor man's inexpensiveAT methods which is common now.

One does not deny the fact that the overallutilisable ground water resources is reasonablyadequate for human consumption in severaldrought ridden Countries even though the watertable is falling lower and lower year after year.In India alone the utilisable resource has beenassessed at 42 million hectare metres as comparedwith 67 million hectare metres of surface water.Experts such as Mr. D.K. Dutt, Chairman of theCentral Ground Water Board claim that someunderground reservoirs can regularly yield about150,000 litres an hour for several years. Mr. Paul

PUMPS OR OPEN WELLS ? 15

H. Jones, an international expert on the subjectsays that oil drilling and seismic studies have moreor less confirmed that the upper gangetic plainhas huge deposits of sand and gravel to depthsof over 1500 metres suggesting the existence oflayers of prolific fresh water tables.

The point raised in my earlier paper isbasically the cost and maintenance factor and theunscientific extraction of groundwater whichreduces the water table, making it necessary fordrillers to go deeper and deeper at greater andgreater cost. A noteworthy example is what hap-pened in Saurashtra in India when indiscriminateand excessive drawals by hand pumps, electricmotors and oil engines have led to saline intrusionsinto sweet water aquifiers, affecting fertility of soiland farm activities in spite of the fact that theWater Policy document of India makes itclear and emphatic that groundwater explorationshould be "so regulated as not to exceed the re-charging possibility."

The eminent jurist of India Mr. V.R.Krishna Iyer, retired Supreme Court Judge, whostood for presidential election of 1987 writes inthe first issue of Loyola Journal of Social Sciences:"Taking our own example, water technologyexperts have estimated that large parts of India


will go without water by the year 2025 AD ifthe present alarming rate of consumption bydomestic and industrial users continues."

Many Governments do little or nothing tosolve the drinking water problem which is so basica necessity for human survival but expect theUNICEF, the WHO, the World Bank and otherInternational or Regional agencies to solve theirwater problem. For instance, what is happeningin the City of Madras, India? The successiveGovernments, after the Britishers left, have noteven cared to remove the silt which has beenaccumulating and reducing the water catchmentarea in the Red Hills lake, the Sembarambakkamlake, and the Poondy lake — the three lakes whichsupply drinking water to the citizens of Madras.

These three lakes prepared by the foreignrulers to provide water for 14 lakhs people of theCity at that time are left like that to provide waterfor 50 lakhs of people now in the City, not to speakof the silt that have accumulated in them overthe years and reduced their holding capacity.

India is a Country of droughts and floodsand ever since Independence the Centre and theStates have been promising the people aboutinter-connecting the rivers but never do so becauseof challenging politics. People are fed up.

PUMPS OR OPEN WELLS '> 17

Recently there was an article in one of theleading UN journals which claimed that the mostpractical and suitable way to solving the waterproblem in the drought ridden Countries is to givethe people bore wells. There seems to be a decisivepolicy and idealism in favour of hand pumps.One agrees that where this idealism can produceresults it certainly should be made to do so. Butthe fear is that idealism is stretched too far with-out taking into consideration the life-style andsocial structure and political, communal andethnic conflicts in the developing Countries.

The UN paper referred to states, "TheHand Pump Project has determined that strongcommunity initiative is essential for the successfullong-term maintenance of rural water supplysystems, including handpumps. Villagers mustbe intimately involved right from the planningstage."

"The institutional capacity of the Com-munity must be evaluated. This includes theorganizational experience of the Community."

"The more people served by each pump,the longer will be the queues, the greater thechances for breakdown, and the greater the risk,that people will return to alternative traditionalsources."


The report continues: "Regional orCountrywide standardization is essential withhandpumps because of the complexities involvedin obtaining adequate skill levels and spare partssupply to rural areas."

"The villagers must be willing and able tocontribute financially atleast to meet the mainten-ance and operation of the water supply schemeand preferably even to its construction to avoid adistortion between alternatives."

How idealistic! The experts do not takeinto account the total failure of the CommunityDevelopment movement and other people's pro-grammes in India and several other Countries andconsider the social backwardness, corruption,political factions, caste community, language andreligious tensions (Sri Lanka for example) andmost important of all the political sabotage of theopposition parties which have taken destructionof public property and community services, astheir main weapon of opposition.

As the former Central Minister for Agri-culture and Irrigation, Mr. Bhanu Pratap Singhwrote in The Hindu of 16th October 1987, "Thenew masters have learnt from their predecessors(the British rulers) the lesson of 'divide and rule.'They have become past masters in creating


dissensions in Villages and have in fact succeededin splitting the rural society, both vertically andhorizontally, into big, small and marginal farmersand landless farm workers, and again into sched-uled, backward and forward castes."

Those who advocate large-scale handpumps should come down to live for some dayswith the illiterate and suppressed and oppressedpoor of the Third Countries of Africa and SouthAmerica who have not seen civilization, and in-clude a visit to the community, caste and politicalenmity ridden India which is considered to bemore advanced than most Third Countries inseveral ways, and they should also consider the setup of society in Bangladesh, the pacific Islandsand the tribalism of Papua New Guinia.

As a Community Development specialistand grass-root worker with experience in severalCountries working with tribals and refugees, thiswriter can say with much conviction that theThird World Society, as it is composed today,will not follow (or be allowed to follow) any ofthe disciplines spelt out by International waterexperts as cited above.

Those who have lived in very poor Coun-tries know very well that in the Villages, in the

2 0 MISCONCEIVED WATER POLICY

Cities, and the road-side, the water tap is the start-ing point of most of the quarrels between familiesbetween groups in the Villages and between neigh-bouring Villages and between tribes. The waterpump is the Community "clash centre". Eventoday in many Third world Countries like India,which has conquered space, produced several Nobellaureates, scholars and scientists to man Americanindustries there are different wells and differenttaps for different communities and a so-calledbackward community women dare not drawwater from so-called forward community wellsor pumps. In every village there is strong grou-pism and half-a-dozen political parties workingone against the other daggers drawn.

This year (1987) the Chief Minister of myState, Tamilnadu, publicly advised members ofhis (AIADMK) party to always carry daggerswith them to defend themselves when attackedby the members of the opposition party in therural parts and this practice is now in voguethroughout the State, eventhough the press criti-cised the advise. One may call this terrorism ordemocracy but it is there, encouraged by theruling Government and practised by the partypeople.

I'UMPS OR OPF,N WELLS ? 21

Similarity in socio-political conditions arefound in most of the African Countries, SouthAmerica, Certain Caribbean Islands, in the IndianOcean and Pacific Islands. Experience tells us thatan A. one project cannot work in a C three State orSociety and this is what our planners and policymakers fail to take into account. Always theytalk about the human factor and people's parti-cipation without giving any consideration toCountry's or Community's life-style and multiplefactions. Community mentality in poverty stri-cken Countries is nQt the same as what it is inrural parts of developed Countries or in poorCountries with pro-western life-style as in someCountries of South America, for instance. Northis not South and the West is not East and it isdifficult for these cultures to meet and this is some-thing for international experts to think about.

Reports Hindu, a leading daily of India,in October 1987 "Nearly 5C00 Harijans wererendered homeless when their huts were gutted by"Vanniars" Harijans had no enmity with anyother section of the people around. Some externalforce (Opposite party members) had exploited theagitation in rendering the Harijans homeless",(the Vanniar Community was agitating for properrecognition and to get some privileges from theGovernment).


And in the previous month (September) inthe City of Madras one anti-religious group gutted100 huts of people belonging to another religionand rendered 500 people homeless. In Ranchi,north India, one religious party puts poison in thewells of those who follow other religions andseveral people are done to death every day. Theseinstances are from India but political and religi-ous opponents are playing hell in many ThirdCountries where the press is suppressed by theruling party or the one party government and thecommon man's cry is not heard.

India which was known for its ancientlocal self-governments (Panchayat Raj) has nowtotally lost the sense of doing things collectively,openly or commonly for fear of opposition orcommunal trouble. When village Panchayats(local self-governments) which were suspendedby the then ruling party in Tamilnadu State some20 years back was restored in 1986, the oppositionparty captured power in the Village Governmentsand they are now sabotaging whatever the rulingparty does, including the water supply systems.Tension is mounting day by day.

And yet the task of organising VillagePanchayats was included as a Directive Frincipleof the Indian Constitution in the following words :


"The State shall take steps to organiseVillage Panchayats and endow them withsuch powers and authority as may benecessary to enable them to function asunits of self government."

There have been any number of instanceswhere City Corporations and Municipalities haveremained under a bureaucratic regime for adecade or more. The most striking example is theCity of Madras where the Corporation which iscelebrating its tercentenary this year (1987) iswithout an elected body for the 14th year run-ning.

The Veeranam Project has been investi-gated and declared most viable both by a highpower team of the government of India and by aWorld Bank team and the World Bank had offeredto give all the money required to the Govern-ment of Tamilnadu to complete the scheme totake drinking water to the people but the rulingparty was determined to scuffle the scheme be-cause it was launched by the opposition partywhen it was in power and that party should nottake the credit. This is no secret but an opendeclaration.

Equally with dirty politics, corruption tothe core is weakening the people's base for


development in most Third Countries. Said Prof.B.S. Minnas, who delivered the sixth J.P. mem-orial lecture on "Planning and the poor in.India"organised by the Jayaprakash Foundation. "Theanti-poverty programmes had been over central-ized, the basic model of development for theremoval of poverty shorn down to its essentials,have been reduced to schemes for dispensing ofpolitical and bureaucratic patronage on an indi-vidual basis."

The UN journal cited earlier says "TheVillagers must be willing and able to contributefinancially atleast to the maintenance and oper-ation of the water supply scheme and preferablyeven to its construction to avoid distortion be-tween alternatives." This is said in spite of factsreported in the New York Times in September1987 which reads: "Most labourers in El Salva-dor, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Gautemala earnlittle more than one dollar a day in economiesthat require atleast that much, at the most mar-ginal level of existence, to feed a family of four.Businessmen ignore the official labour codes re-gulating working conditions and Governmentsseldom appear to enforce them!

With economies in mine, and inflation atan all time high in most Countries, even a raise


offers no more than temporary respite. "Wageincreases, although often granted, have not keptup with the upward price spiral", says the officialUnited States embassy report on labour condi-tions in Guatemala, where most workers earnabout a $ 1.50 a day. "This has brought growingmisery to the most marginal sectors of the popula-tion", the report concludes.

"In Nicaragua, a Country caught up in asocialist revolution and war, workers are alsobadly off. With inflation at 700 percent, foodrationed, and most trade unions controlled by theState, making strikes almost impossible, mostNicaraguan workers have never had so little tolive on." Can water experts expect Nicaraguansto contribute anything to sink bore wells or main-tain hand-pumps?

Economic conditions are appaling inalmost all LDCs and most of the DCs. UNDPsays, "One thousand two hundred and fifty mil-lion human beings do not have adequate shelter.One hundred million people have no housingwhatsoever. Some have never had a proper placeto live; others have been made homeless by disas-ters. In urban areas they dwell on the pavement,stake out a few square feet under bridges or invacant plots, sleep in doorways, subways or the


recess of public buildings" (Development Forum).These are the people who need water urgently,James Grant, Executive Director of the UNICEFreported that 1985 was the sixth Consecutiveyear in which the developing Countries as a wholerecorded a drop in the per capita income. Appar-ently poverty level is falling year after year. YetInternational water experts say that the poorshould try and pay for the construction andmaintenance of hand pumps? wither reality!

We are one with planners and policymakers when they talk about people's participa-tion, training local leaders, promoting welfareassociations, maintenance committees, cooper-atives etc. But one has to be pragmatic and look atsituations as situations are and take water topeople who are dying, in approaches that arefeasible instead of talking of how people and ruralcommunities should behave and dirty politiciansshould conduct themselves.

The World Watch Institute and severalother International fact finding agencies havesaid in many of their reports that most of thecalamities in Africa are not natural or climatic, butpolitical. In view of this finding developmentapproaches will have to be changed. Governmentsand human life-style and behaviour cannot be

PUMPS OR OPEN WELLS? 27

changed overnight but certainly we can changeour policies and plans to safe alternatives. Forappropriate management philosophy which ex-plains how set-up and approaches can be alteredto make human nature behave in a desired man-ner, please see PEMBA (Personal Managementby Alterations) by this author which was pub-lished by the Hindu and then as a booklet.

Whether it is hardware or software,appropriate technology has to be very specific tothe economy, custom, culture, politics, and life-style of a given community. Just because of VLOM(Village Level Operation and Maintenance) ofhand pumps succeeded in Livulezi Valley ofMalawi or in San yuyo in Guatemala, we cannotgeneralise and say that it will by and large work inany God-forsaken or trouble ridden rural area.Taking an overview of the water pump arrange-ments made so far, their success and failures, theinput and expenditure, one must feel convincedthat the less expensive "open system" is bettersuited and more economical for most of the poorcommunities, groups or tribes, than the "moreexpensive" closed system where atleast 80 percenttotal breakdown or non-functioning is commonwithin a year or two after installation. There isno doubt that the national and international


agencies which are now assiduously promotinghand pumps wiU sooner or later come to thisconclusion and thereafter give more importanceto the "open system" than to the "closed." Havethey not given up promoting and financing largescale dams and hydro-electric projects after burn-ing their finger and now saying "small is beautiful".Experts of the Inter-American Development Bankhave rated 39 of 40 large dams in the Third Worldas failure.

National and International Governmentswill also turn to using abundantly available seawater as explained in the earlier paper "Pumpswithout Water."

Already the Gujarat State Fertilizer Cor-poration, India, is installing a desalination plantat an estimated cost of Rs. 4.50 Crores or US$ 45 million near Jamnagar to face the watercrisis. The plant with a capacity to convert halfmillion gallons of sea water into potable water isbeing imported from USA. The State of Tamil-nadu has also placed an order for a similar mach-ine with Japan. With increasing population anddepleting inland and subsoil water and repeatedmonsoon failure the only alternative is to resortto sea water: However, solar evaporation systemlike the ones set up in Somalia or Gujarat should


be prefered to the system of importing costlymachines from USA or Japan. It is possible forthe man in the street to convert sea water into purevaporised water. The family size solar still de-signed by this writer will not cost more than US"S 30 and it is very practical, (pages 37 to 40).

Sea water is being converted into freshwater on a large scale by solar power north ofJeddah, Saudi Arabia, by American Technology.The desalination process uses heat from the sunto produce steam. Powerful lenses are used tointensify sunlight by 40 times, and the steam isused to work machines to freeze sea water. Whensea water freezes, the salt in the water collects onthe outside of the ice crystals, and the salt can beseparated by washing the ice crystals in freshwater. Then the cristals are melted into fresh water.Further research is bound to simplify this processand make it even more economical than now.Since this process has proved successful manycountries are soon bound to turn to the sea forfresh water. Perhaps the hot and dry Countrieswill be driven to resort to this system in the nearfuture. Wind mills on the sea-shore can be used tolift the water into the boilers and freezers. Byinstalling a chain of units large extents of landscan be brought under fresh water irrigation and


perhaps organic fertilizers can be mixed in thewater flowing to the fields.

In conclusion the UNDP 1986 AnnualReport (A Better Environment for Development),may be cited: "There is only a finite amount offresh water circulating throughout the planet.More than 97 percent of the earth's surface waterbelongs to the oceans, leaving only a small per-centage for drinking water and irrigation. With-out ways to bring this finite resources to those whohave no access to it, more than nine million peoplea year will continue to die from a combination offactors related mostly to contaminated water.

"Competition for water is fierce; crops,industry, livestock and people depend on it. Agri-culture, however, claims the largest single shareof all water used. Poor irrigation wastes preciouswater and can have adverse environmental effects".

(Author, Felix Ryan, a Third World DevelopmentEconomist, has been a consultant to the UNIDOand ILO and has authored the books, AppropriateManagement Technology for the Third World andBetter Life Technologies for the Poor.)


Questionnaire to be answered by those advocatinghand pumps

1 How long does it take to install a deep borewell hand-pump in a remote village of a poorCountry?

2 How much does the pump cost?3 In which Country is it made and to which

Country is it taken? And what is the in-surance and cost of transporting?

4 How much is the cost of installation ?

5 How much is the cost of taking the heavypump to a remote village, say 300 Kms, fromthe State Head Quarters or the port of aCountry?

6 How much is the expenditure on staff, labourand supervision?

7 Who is responsible for maintaining the pump ?

8 Who gives training and tools for the mainte-nance mechanic and how much do all thesecost?

9 If the washer, piston or chain breaks or getsworn out, which happens once in threemonths, who repairs them and who meetsthe cost?


10 From where is that remote village to obtainthe spare parts and how? Is there a quicktransport and is ready cash made available?

11 Who pays for the spare parts and how much ?

12 Who pays for the mechanic and how much?13 What happens when the mechanic is sick or

out of the village or quarrels with the Com-munity?

14 What happens if one community, caste, tribe,linguistic, religions or political group mono-polizes the pump and does not allow othersto go near it as is usually the case in Indiaand several other Countries?

15 What happens when the water table goesdown due to over pumping and there is nomore water in the tap as it is happening inmany Countries now?

16 Has any Agency done a survey to record thenumber of pumps in working order out of thetotal number installed in any particular LDC— after 3 months, after 6 months, after oneyear, after 2 years?

17 What has been the average working life ofhand pumps in L.D.Cs? Are atleast 50 per-cent of the pumps installed 2 years backworking now?


18 How many give potable water ?

19 How many families, on an average, aresupposed to use the pump and how manypots of water can each family have?

20 Should they pump water only for drinkingand cooking or also for bathing, washingclothes and cattle? How is all this controlledand regulated without quarrels?

21 Who watches that children don't fill stone,sand and sticks into the pump?

22 If a woman shouts at a child filling sand intoa pump will the mother of that child keepquiet or kick up a row?

23 If a time limit is fixed for each household,who administers the time limit and what doesshe/he do if somebody exceeds the time limit?

24 What happens if the village headman, poli-tician or chief himself monopolizes the pump?

25 Supposing all goes well with the pump, whathappens to the traditional source of supply ?

26 Who removes the silt from tanks of catchmentareas and keeps the bund in good conditionduring the rainy season ?


27 Will not water hyacinth and weeds spread incatchment areas and ponds that are not inuse and multiply mosquitoes?

28 What happens to underground plastic partsif they are eaten by bandicoots as it frequentlyhappens in India even in cities?

29 Is it easy to join metal parts with plasticparts?

30 If the Community abandons the hand pumpas commonly done, does it result in develop-ment or destruction?

PART - THREE

Ideas For ActionFAMILY SIZE SOLAR STILL

ATIC Handout 198 Maximum cost US $ 30 only

Solar stills are now becoming popular in countrieswith bright sun. There are very cheap and smallbachelor size stills like the one invented and dis-played for demonstration by the MurugappaChettiar AT Research Centre at TaTamani, Madrasand large scale village community type like theone installed with UN aid in Somalia. The diagramhere is of a still designed specially to meet familyrequirement of pure and potable water.INSTRUCTIONS FOR CONSTRUCTIONABCD is a one sq. meter galvanised tin tray.16 cm deep/ EFGH is a smaller gal. tin tray ofthe size 80 sq. cm. 15 cm deep/ JK, GN, OV, &LM are .5 cm rounds welded to the 4 cornersof the larger tray/ KL, LO, & ON are all .5 cmrounds welded to the 4 pillars as shown/ Rod KNmay be a PVC coated electric wire/ Roads on oneside may be 15 cm longer than the rods on theother side as shown

A high density transparent PVC cloth maybe cut to size and stuck with rubber glue,to cover side ABKL, KNOL & CDON/Anothersimilar sheet my be cut to size to cover theside BCKN, LONK & LODA/The sheets must be

36 IDEAS FOR ACTION

pulled and fixed as stiff as possible (should notsag) and the chamber thus covered must be airtight. If necessary here and there stitches maybe put to make the fixing stiff./ All the sheetsshould be stuck on the inside walls of the big

FAMILY SIZE SOLAR STILL

IDEAS FCR ACTION 37

tray and not on the outside walls/ Side JBCGmust be a shutter, either with sliding arrangementor with hinges so that the small tray canbe removed and cleaned every week. If sea wateris used, salt will collect in the small tray whichcan be scraped and used in the kitchen. If impureand brownish the salt may be cleaned and purifiedas explained in ATIC handout 64./ If the roofKNOL alone can be of glass there will be quickerevaporation and more condensed water will comeout of the still every day. The glass must be11 x li mt. If the two rods JK and GN are madeto project an inch or two on top the projectionwill hold the glass placed on the frame KLON/If the glass is in two parts the joint must be sealedby a cellophane tape or hand-made paper.

OPERATIONThe still may be kept permanently in one's back-yard, frontage or terrace. It can even be keptin the balcony of residential flats provided sunenters there. Trees or buildings should not obs-truct the fall of the sun. Four buckets of sea wateror brackish well water may be poured into funnelP to fill the small tray. By evening most of thewater which evaporates and condenses will roledown the smallest side in beeds and fill the biggertray and from there flow into the container SRT.The lid of this container must be tight to.prevent

38 IDEAS FOR ACTION

further evaporation. The water that can be drawnout through tap T will be absolutely pure and fitfor human consumption without boiling. Formore water two stills is the answer.Issued by the Appropriate Technology Informa-tion Centre, No. 8 West Mada St. SrinagarColony, Saidapet, Madras-600015, India,The poor will remain poor if they depend on thetechnology of the rich.

RURAL LIGHTING BY SEA WATERATIC Handout 214

(for diagram see handout 215 P. 40)This is a simple idea of connecting a dry lake orcatchment area of coastal villages by cement ormetal or fibre-glass water pipes of about 60 cmdiameter to let sea water in. The lake or catch-ment area may be at a distance of one to ten kmsfrom the sea. At the outlet end in the lake orcatchment area one or two mini generators maybe installed. The entry of the sea into the pipesmay be controlled and regulated by lock andsluice arrangement. For safety sake, an additionallocking arrangement may be made somewherein the middle of the pipe-line. In case the head-lock gets stuck or breaks, the middle lock canstop the water from flooding into the land.

The lock may be lifted at 6 PM and closedat 6 AM and throughout the night the flowing

IDEAS FOR ACTION 39

water will generate electricity. If the receivingcapacity of the tank or catchment area is smallthe flow may be allowed only from 6 PM to 10 PMevery day when people really need light.

From the lake or catchment area the watermay be led by small canals into interior villagesand connected to lakes and catchment areas inthose villages. Mini generators may be installedat the end of these canals also.

This scheme will not only provide streetlights for the poor villages but also make theirbaren dry lands wet and there can be inland seawater fishing and growing of saline soil trees,shrubs and fuel wood. Names of some saline soiland sea water plants and trees are given elsewhere.Land locked interior villages will have atleastsea water to cool their surroundings and to washtheir cattle, clean their clothes and to soak theirfibre plants for fibre extraction. They can alsohave salt pans and make salt for their domesticneeds. Fodder for cattle can be grown.

When drinking water becomes scarce insummer they can use the solar still shown inpage 35 and convert the sea water into po-table water. People who have no water to batheand keep clean can take a dip in sea water pondsand pools and there will be less disease and morecheer.

X, ,*. -I. . IV

Sea waves when theyI rise

fill thesesaucers

A i l l Handout 215(for explanation please see

handout 214)

For Sea Water liftersplease see ATIC handout216

IDEAS FOR ACTION 41

WAVE LIFTERS ATIC Handout 216

While handout 215 explains how to tap waves inthe sea this handout explains how to lift the waves.

The buckets and the collapsible flaps arethe special features of the windmill designed forthe purpose. Each bucket wing seen in dia. oneis 2 m long and each wing has 30 cm y 15 cmflaps on either side fixed on hinges to work likebutterfly wings. When folded towards the axleof the mill the flaps will fold only to a certainextent (to form about 90 degrees with the bucketwing as shown in dia 2) as there is a block (stop)in the rear of the flap to prevent it from foldingfurther. Thus, when the wind blows the flaps willbe in open position as shown in dia 2. But thiswill happen only when the buckets with watermove upwards and make the buckets move faster.

After the buckets empty the water in thereceiving tank as shown in dia 4 and move down-ward empty the flaps will collapse and hang down-ward as shown in dia 3. In other words, whenthe buckets pick up the waves (water) and moveupwards the opened out flaps will face more ofblowing wind and move faster and when theyreturn empty downwards the gollapsed flaps willnot offer wind resistence. By this arrangementthe mill will operate efficiently.

42IDEAS FOR ACTION/

WAVE LIFTERS

Dia. 4

IDEAS FOR ACTION 43

The buckets and the collapsible flaps maybe made of aluminium or fibre glass. The millmay be installed 30 to 50 mts away from the shoreand in such a position that the bucket wings dip15 to 30 cms into the water at normal water levelin the sea.

Receiver (dia 4) built on Saucer collectorswhich are explained in handout 215 should alsobe positioned to collect the water dropping fromthe buckets. The site for installing the mill mustbe selected with care. There must be enoughwind in the area and the shore level should notbe more than two meters, above sea level.

COMMUNITY WATER SERVICE

ATIC Handeut 218

Water is an eternal problem in Third WorldVillages. Bore wells are inoperative and oftengive saline water. However, there are some goodopen wells here and there and the village womengather round these wells and wait for their turnThe waiting is long and often the queue is brokenresulting in quarrels.

Diagram shows an arrangement in whicha water tank is built around the wall of the well.

44 IDEAS FOR ACTION

A hole is made on the existing wall of the well justabove the tank as shown.

A pair of Causarina poles may be tiedlike a ladder 10 to 12 meters long. Two or threepoles may be joined and tied together. One endof the ladder must be buried half a foot into theground slanting on the well wall as shown.

IDEAS FOR ACTION 45

The other end must come almost in line with themiddle of the well and on the very top cross bar(rung) a pulley may be tied or hooked.

Water-proof canvas cloth (rain coat cloth)may be cut and stitched in the form of a longtube of 15 cm diameter. Out of the same materiala bucket may be stitched without the bottom.The bucket may be 40 cm long, 30 cm in topdiameter and 15 cm. in bottom diameter. Theopen bottom end may be attached to one end ofthe long canvas tube as shown and the other endpulled out from the inside of the well through thehole that was made and a metal rim of 18 cmdiameter fixed to the delivery end of the canvastube so that the delivery end does not fall backinto the well.

The total length of the canvas tube shouldbe equal to the length between the delivery holein the wall and the water level in the well, (plus1J mts. in case the water level goes down.)

A quarter cm. thick metal ring is fixed tothe opening end of the bucket and a semi circularring attached to that ring as shown, when the twocm thick nylon rope or fibre rope tied to the bucketand taken round the pulley is let loose the bucketdips into the water and picks up water and whenthe rope is pulled back the water in the tube getsemptied into the storage tank around the well.

46 IDEAS FOR ACTION

Every day two families may fill the tankin turns and the others asked to take three bucketsof water from the tank. This will save time, troubleand labour for the village and there will be happycommunity participation. The system can verywell be introduced as a first step in communityco-operation and people's participation in ruralareas.

NOTE : From 1982 ATIC (International has beenreleasing one handout every week of the typeprinted in this booklet under Part III and theyrelate to various aspects of rural development.Hundreds of them have been printed and pub-lished. While the handouts are sent free to ATICmembers, others way obtain them at Rs. 3 eachwhich includes postage. Those outside India mayplease send US $ one to cover foreign postage.They will be sent only on receipt of payment.

Better Life Technologiesfor the Poor

(Review)

This 112-page book written by Felix Ryan whohas been working for the UNIDO and the ILOas an Advisor on rural community developmentand extension methods in several countries con-tains one hundred grass-root development ideasto help the very poor to help themselves and theirneighbours to live better, economically, socially,and hygienically. All the ideas can be implementedeven in God-forsaken villages with local rawmaterials, strictly speaking with their own re-sources and without any financial or technicalaid from outside.

Some of the ideas don't require any moneyat all to be put into practice and many of themcan be implemented with about ten to twentyIndian rupees on each idea (about US $ 2 only)on material cost. Usage of metal parts, evensimple items such as nuts, bolts, washers, nails,screws and binding wire are avoided as far aspossible, because they are not easily available

4 8 BETTER LIFE TECHNOLOGIES FOR THE POOR

in most Third World Countries which don'tmanufacture but import them.

If an NGO (non-government organization)takes up the implementation, Indian Rs. 1O,CGOor US $ 1000 would be more than adequate,including transportation, supervisory chargesand contingencies to implement all the 100 ideasin a selected village or Growth Centre and theycan give direct employment and a family livingwage or additional income to atleast 1000 families.The same idea may be given to several familiesin the same village depending on the population.Some projects require plants and trees to be grownto produce the raw materials. Even by imple-menting 50 selected ideas a model-cum-demons-tration Growth Centre can be established forothers to copy.

Every detail is explained in simple languagewith diagrams and it is an ideal guide book forgrass-root workers to bring about developmentwithout delay and dependence and to help humanbeings to live like human beings. Appropriatetechnology, self-help, waste utilization, develop-ment of one's own raw materials, people's parti-cipation, learning on the job, employment ofwomen, children and unemployed youth inparticular, is the keynote of the book to relieve

BETTER LIFE TECHNOLOGIES FOR THE POOR 49

poverty, hunger and the burden of living. Inparticular, the book is written for refugee settle-ments, interior villages, small underdevelopedislands, tribal areas and the urban informal sector.

The book may be obtained from CARITASINDIA, CBCI Centre, Ashok Place, GoleDakhana, New Delhi-110001, a non-profit seekingorganization which enjoys consultative statuswith the United Nations. With numerousdiagrams, it can be had on advance payment foractual cost of printing plus handling chargeswhich comes to Rs. 10 in India. Postage extra.

Volume Two will be out in 1988.

By the same author

1. Efficiency for Small Manufacturers. - AsiaPublishing House, London.

2. Appropriate Management Technology for theThird World- Wheeler & Co. 755, MountRoad, Madras - 600002

3. Trade Training - some new Thinking - Centrefor Research on new International EconomicOrder. No. 1. Haddows Road, Madras-600034

50 BETTER LIFE TECHNOLOGIES FOR THE POOR

4. Co-operation as it should work (compiled)Ryon Training Institute, 56 Catholic Centre,Armenian St, Madras-1

5. Rural Co-operatives (co-author) IndianSocial Institute, N. Delhi.

6. Better Life Technologies for the Poor. Vol. I.-Caritas India. CBC1 Centre, Ashok Place,New-Delhi 100011

7. Better Life Technology Vol. N

8. First Aid to Sick Chicken OYDEC,Mission St. Pondicherry-605001

9. Spinning Rs. 6000 PM from rabbits, -ATIC(International) 8. West Mada St., SrinagarColony, Madras-600 015 and Rotary Clubof Madras (South)

10. Pumps without Water (Misconceived WaterPolicy), published by Satprakashan SancharKendra Bhanwarkua Chowraha, Indore -452001. MP. India.

11. PEMBA (Personnel management by Alter-natives). ATIC (International).

PUMPS WITHOUT WATER

"About 97 percent of the total water available in ourplanet is in the salty sea and out of the remaining 3percent of fresh water that is available for human con-sumption 2.9 percent is in the form of polar icecapsand only 0.1 percent fresh water is really available tosustain life in our planet."

"Before the end of this century humanity will be suckingthe earth dry and drinking water will become a rationedand taxed commodity under political, national and inter-national control and wars will be fought between coun-tries, not for the land, gold or power but for drinkingwater."

"It is the prediction of this author that water is boundto become more scarce and costly in the 21st century-costlier even than oil and many nations that errect rigsand drills for oil will soon be drilling for water off shore."

"Author, Felix Rayan, a Third World Development Eco-nomist, has been a consultant to the UNIDO and ILOand has authored the books. Appropriate ManagementTechnology for the Third World and Better Life Techno-logies for the Poor.

SATPRAKASHAN SANCHAR KENDRA.JNDORE-452001, M.P.

Documents

210 88PU WITHOUT WATER - IRC · and catchment areas must be done to collect more water during the rains to maintain sub-soil water level during summer. Flowing of rain water into