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  Guidelines for Sustainable Handpump Projects in Africa
 

R Number:  R7817
Contractor;  WEDC, Loughborough University
Dates:         November 2000 - March 2004

Improved sustainability of communal handpumps in Africa through an increased awareness of the factors affecting successful implementation and management.

Executive Summary
Objectives
The objective of the research is to produce guidelines that, when followed, will lead to improved sustainability of communal handpump projects in Africa.
Methodology
Over the last thirty years handpumps have been increasingly promoted as a water supply option particularly in rural and peri-urban areas. They have been considered an appropriate low cost solution that uses a technology that can be operated by end users and maintained at a local or regional level. Unfortunately in many cases, particularly in Africa, they have failed to live up to expectations. For a number of reasons they have often fallen into disuse shortly after installation. However, there are examples of successful handpump projects around the world but information about them is not being passed to others to improve sustainability elsewhere. This project will collect and analyse experiences from handpump projects, particularly in Africa, to find out what features promote their sustainability. It will synthesise data from a variety of sources to produce guidelines for achieving sustainable handpump projects.

The project is divided into three phases, further details of which can be found from the project web-site (the address of which appears at the end of this document).
Phase 1 - Collection of baseline data; identification of partners; establishment of peer review panel; identification of key issues to be addressed.
Phase 2 - Data collection in the field; analysis of the data collected; preparation, peer review, finalisation and publication of the guidelines.
Phase 3 - Dissemination of the guidelines

The proposed outputs are:

  • inception report produced at the end of Phase 1
  • evaluation reports of handpump projects visited
  • guidelines for sustainable handpump projects (main output)
  • proceedings from workshop at the start of Phase 3
  • papers for presentation to international conferences and academic journals
    • Further Information
    Project web site:
    http://wedc.lboro.ac.uk/projects/shp/index.htm
    This web-site will be updated during the project. It contains details of how to join an e-mail-based discussion list that covers issues relating to this project.
    Contact Details for Further Information
    R.A.Reed and B.H.Skinner
    Water Engineering and Development Centre (WEDC)
    Loughborough University
    Leicestershire
    LE11 3TU
    UK

    Tel: Reed +44 (0)1509 222628, Skinner +44 (0)1509 222619
    Fax: +44 (0)1509 211079
    E-Mail: R.A.Reed@lboro.ac.uk, B.H.Skinner@lboro.ac.uk