Message-ID: <19971031.061136.6902.1.washe@juno.com> Date: Fri, 31 Oct 1997 06:11:32 -0800 From: William A Ashe <mailto:washe@JUNO.COM> Subject: Water on line conference http://www.wateronline.com/chat/ To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
From: William A AsheHello all Subscribers; We are having success training national teams to repair inoperative hand pumped wells, manufacture the Zimbabwe Bush Hand Pump and make water well cylinders. We supply them with the plunger cage which is injected molded for $2 here. It replaces a brass cage at $30 machined finished by competition. This price advantage will help get sales for the water well cylinders. The Bush pump is really ' Village level maintenance " . I have been puzzled why the rest of the rural poor relying on hand pumps haven't switched to Bush pumps from the more expensive commercial one.
We prototyped this Pump Shop with teams in Kenya, Togo and Uganda in 1996 and this year. There will be some learning curve experiences for us as well as them but we are encouraged by the nationals' response when they see they really CAN fix their pumps. It is great to see the enthusiasm of the crew when a village celebrates at a repaired well !
I would appreciate comments by any of you who have had similar experiences. Or, if you would like to know more send us an email at mailto:lifewater@xc.org and we will try to answer you request. You may visit our site on the web lifewater.org and read about our ministry.
JOIN US IN A DISCUSSION OF HOW TO HELP THE RURAL POOR WITH SAFE WATER. http://www.wateronline.com/chat/
Thank you.
Bill Ashe Director LIFEWATER INTERNATIONAL { from home, in my spare time )