Why we believe PlayPumps are the right solution in the right place. 
I really do have some challenging conversations with people on Twitter at times. I have to say I value them because they make me question my own judgement. The recent dialog with @gentlemandad did just. So I gathered evidence whilst in the office and created this blog.
We are one of the largest funders of the PlayPump water system in Africa and to date, we have built 615 PlayPumps - these are sited in South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland and Malawi and installed by professional, trained teams. In our recent audit, 96% of these were operational and we have maintenance agreements in place to ensure that Pumps are fixed within 21 days if no water is flowing. We haven’t yet sited any of our pumps in Mozambique and our focus for this year is Malawi: 70% of our PlayPumps will be sited in this country and only at schools – Malawian schools traditionally have over 1,000 children in attendance.
We have funded the majority of our PlayPumps in the last few years and following our selection criteria, these have only been installed in schools with 350 pupils as a minimum requirement. We recognize that a badly placed PlayPump, e.g. in a community with very few children and many older adults is not ideal and that is why we have our selection processes in place to ensure the correct siting of our PlayPumps.
We firmly believe that schools are the right location for PlayPumps and have only ever received praise for the scheme. This often comes from the principal and teachers, and it is hugely inspiring when we obtain feedback as they are the people on the ground who really have an understanding of the children’s needs. The children have little or no playground equipment and for them to have the use of an toy that both gives them huge amounts of fun and also provides water is fantastic. Children’s education can often suffer as schools can close due to lack of water so siting a PlayPump within a school ensures a secure supply of water for drinking (preventing dehydration), cooking, hand washing and irrigation of vegetable gardens, giving children a valuable source of nutrition to supplement their diets. Water is also available for the wider community to use during school hours too.
The PlayPump isn’t only a piece of fun play-equipment, it also provides a truly sustainable source of clean water as all potential sites are tested for both water quality (bacteriological testing) and quantity (sustainability) prior to installation. The bore is sealed which means that no contaminants can leach into the water and cause illness and disease and the system is subject to a pre-agreed and locally contracted maintenance agreement. This means that the pump is kept flowing by a properly equipped maintenance team rather than relying on the local community to supply the tools and have the knowledge to fix any issues, something that we wouldn’t expect here in the UK. At our last audit, 96% of our PlayPumps were flowing – a figure that compares very well with the 66% of hand pumps in operation throughout Africa. The PlayPumps also have a 21-day service agreement, which means that if they have a serious service issue that stops water flowing, this will be fixed within 3 weeks by the trained team, all of whom carry spares with them.
Our next PlayPump audit is taking place in November 2010 by an independent NGO and we will publish the results of this on our web site.
We firmly believe that the PlayPump is a brilliant solution when installed in the right location and for this reason we only install in schools. Of course not all areas in need have schools large enough to make PlayPumps a viable solution and we are looking into appropriate water pumping technologies for these communities.
I'd value your opinion. Feel free to let me know what you think. Thanks.
About the Author
I look after two roles at One. 1) I head up digital and social media; and 2) I host client trips out to our sites in Africa and blog our experiences. You may already know me as the voice behind One Difference on our Facebook community.
One is such a unique, fun and life changing business. Our aim is to make it easy for everyone to make a difference to those that need it most. I feel fortunate to work for one of the best companies ever. We are honest and transparent about who we are, we work hard at our cause and we have a lot of fun too. My colleagues, our partners and our community members make a great family. I feel part of something truly special.
