An innovative local design is making child’s play of pumping
water and providing rural communities with a clean source of
water.
The play-pump is a playground roundabout that drives a conventional borehole pump.
The advertising boards placed on water-storage tanks next to the roundabouts do not only pay for the maintenance of the equipment, but are also used to carry advertising in support of the Love Life HIV/Aids awareness campaign.
Roundabout Outdoor, an outdoor advertising company of Johannesburg, has the exclusive right to market and install the play-pump.
Director Trevor Field says that, for many people living in remote rural communities, which have little other exposure to the media, it is the only HIV/Aids awareness message they see on a regular basis.
Director Mark Melman says donor funds and outdoor advertising have paid for the installation and maintenance of 300 of these pumps in the country’s five most rural provinces – Mpumalanga, the Eastern Cape, North West Province, Limpopo and Kwazulu-Natal – without any cost incurred by the taxpayer.
Last month, local electricity provider Eskom sponsored 40 play-pump units, 15 of which will be installed in Kwazulu-Natal, 15 in Limpopo, five in the North West Province and five in the Free State.
According to Melman, the company’s aim is to have 500 units installed by the end of the year.
Field says he first saw a demonstration of the play-pump at the Pretoria Show in 1990, where inventor Ronnie Styver, a drilling contractor, was exhibiting a prototype.
Field immediately realised the potential of the pump, and entered into an agreement with Styver to obtain the exclusive rights to market the system locally and internationally.
The first two play-pumps were installed in the Masinga district in Kwazulu-Natal in 1993 in conjunction with the local water authority, Umgeni Water.
“These pumps were still working fine after ten years, and we refurbished them at the start of the year,” Field says.
Since then, Roundabout Outdoor has performed research and development on the play-pump and the advertising concept that pays for it.
Field explains that, in remote areas, the chore of fetching water usually falls on women and children.
“Traditional sources of water collection are from dams, springs, streams, and farm reservoirs, with the introduction of boreholes where these sources are unavailable.
“These boreholes are usually operated by hand-pumps, as the use of modern alternatives such as diesel, petrol or electric pumps are costly to install and have the added cost of fuel and maintenance,” Field says.
The pump design converts rotational movement to reciprocating linear movement by a driving mechanism consisting of only two working parts.
According to Field, this makes the pump highly effective, easy to operate and very economical.
Every pump is designed to operate with a start-up weight of four kilograms, which makes it acceptable to use the roundabout as a toy.
The pump is able to produce 1 400 litres of water an hour at 16 r/min from a depth of 40 m and is effective to a depth of 100 m. Melman says in order to make play-pumps affordable, as they are relatively expensive when compared to hand-pumps, it was decided to support the product by using the water-storage tanks next to it as an advertising medium.
The play-pump’s storage tank is erected on a seven-metre-high stand and is fitted with four two metre by three metre outdoor advertising signs.
“Advertisers using the space on the advertisement boards reported that they were selling more of their products at the local spaza shops.
“This proved to us that the advertising concept worked. “We then had the brainwave that if the advertising boards were effective in promoting products to rural communities, they could be just as effective in promoting health-related messages,” Field says.
The combination of the ideas that the play-pump incorporates – entertaining children while providing clean water to remote communities and spreading health-related messages – resulted in it winning the team choice award in the World Bank’s developing marketplace competition in January 2000, giving the concept its first big breakthrough.
Field says the competition takes place bi-annually in Washington, DC, in the US, and is aimed at assisting innovators of products that promote sustainable development.
Melman adds that the company entered the play-pump in to the competition on the premise that some of the advertising boards on the water-storage tanks next to each pump could be used to carry health-related messages.
Roundabout Outdoor won $165 000 in the competition, and approached the Department of Health and the US-based Kaiser Family Foundation, which sponsors the Love Life HIV/Aids awareness campaign, with an offer to supply free advertising space for the campaign’s advertisements on the play pumps it was going to install, using the prize money. Field says the Kaiser Family Foundation pledged a further R5-million, on the condition that the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (Dwaf) also became a partner in the project, making the same financial contribution.
“In November 2000, Roundabout Advertising entered into a public–private partnership with Dwaf, and minister Ronnie Kasrils, who heads the department, fully endorsed the project,” Field adds.
Since 2000, the company has raised R15-million from donors, and installed 250 play-pumps. Currently, the storage tanks of all the play-pumps installed carry two advertising boards with health-related messages.
Field estimates that the pumps, on average, supply water to between 2 500 and 3 000 people in every community in which they are installed, and that the advertising messages displayed on the storage tanks are read by about 5 000 people, including those passing through the area.
Roundabout Outdoor installs the play-pumps at sites with a large gathering of children, such as school playgrounds, clinics and community centres.
The pumps are manufactured locally in its factory in Springs, on the East Rand.
Roundabout Outdoor would also like to promote the concept in other African countries, as well as India, China and Mexico.
The play-pump is a playground roundabout that drives a conventional borehole pump.
The advertising boards placed on water-storage tanks next to the roundabouts do not only pay for the maintenance of the equipment, but are also used to carry advertising in support of the Love Life HIV/Aids awareness campaign.
Roundabout Outdoor, an outdoor advertising company of Johannesburg, has the exclusive right to market and install the play-pump.
Director Trevor Field says that, for many people living in remote rural communities, which have little other exposure to the media, it is the only HIV/Aids awareness message they see on a regular basis.
Director Mark Melman says donor funds and outdoor advertising have paid for the installation and maintenance of 300 of these pumps in the country’s five most rural provinces – Mpumalanga, the Eastern Cape, North West Province, Limpopo and Kwazulu-Natal – without any cost incurred by the taxpayer.
Last month, local electricity provider Eskom sponsored 40 play-pump units, 15 of which will be installed in Kwazulu-Natal, 15 in Limpopo, five in the North West Province and five in the Free State.
According to Melman, the company’s aim is to have 500 units installed by the end of the year.
Field says he first saw a demonstration of the play-pump at the Pretoria Show in 1990, where inventor Ronnie Styver, a drilling contractor, was exhibiting a prototype.
Field immediately realised the potential of the pump, and entered into an agreement with Styver to obtain the exclusive rights to market the system locally and internationally.
The first two play-pumps were installed in the Masinga district in Kwazulu-Natal in 1993 in conjunction with the local water authority, Umgeni Water.
“These pumps were still working fine after ten years, and we refurbished them at the start of the year,” Field says.
Since then, Roundabout Outdoor has performed research and development on the play-pump and the advertising concept that pays for it.
Field explains that, in remote areas, the chore of fetching water usually falls on women and children.
“Traditional sources of water collection are from dams, springs, streams, and farm reservoirs, with the introduction of boreholes where these sources are unavailable.
“These boreholes are usually operated by hand-pumps, as the use of modern alternatives such as diesel, petrol or electric pumps are costly to install and have the added cost of fuel and maintenance,” Field says.
The pump design converts rotational movement to reciprocating linear movement by a driving mechanism consisting of only two working parts.
According to Field, this makes the pump highly effective, easy to operate and very economical.
Every pump is designed to operate with a start-up weight of four kilograms, which makes it acceptable to use the roundabout as a toy.
The pump is able to produce 1 400 litres of water an hour at 16 r/min from a depth of 40 m and is effective to a depth of 100 m. Melman says in order to make play-pumps affordable, as they are relatively expensive when compared to hand-pumps, it was decided to support the product by using the water-storage tanks next to it as an advertising medium.
The play-pump’s storage tank is erected on a seven-metre-high stand and is fitted with four two metre by three metre outdoor advertising signs.
“Advertisers using the space on the advertisement boards reported that they were selling more of their products at the local spaza shops.
“This proved to us that the advertising concept worked. “We then had the brainwave that if the advertising boards were effective in promoting products to rural communities, they could be just as effective in promoting health-related messages,” Field says.
The combination of the ideas that the play-pump incorporates – entertaining children while providing clean water to remote communities and spreading health-related messages – resulted in it winning the team choice award in the World Bank’s developing marketplace competition in January 2000, giving the concept its first big breakthrough.
Field says the competition takes place bi-annually in Washington, DC, in the US, and is aimed at assisting innovators of products that promote sustainable development.
Melman adds that the company entered the play-pump in to the competition on the premise that some of the advertising boards on the water-storage tanks next to each pump could be used to carry health-related messages.
Roundabout Outdoor won $165 000 in the competition, and approached the Department of Health and the US-based Kaiser Family Foundation, which sponsors the Love Life HIV/Aids awareness campaign, with an offer to supply free advertising space for the campaign’s advertisements on the play pumps it was going to install, using the prize money. Field says the Kaiser Family Foundation pledged a further R5-million, on the condition that the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (Dwaf) also became a partner in the project, making the same financial contribution.
“In November 2000, Roundabout Advertising entered into a public–private partnership with Dwaf, and minister Ronnie Kasrils, who heads the department, fully endorsed the project,” Field adds.
Since 2000, the company has raised R15-million from donors, and installed 250 play-pumps. Currently, the storage tanks of all the play-pumps installed carry two advertising boards with health-related messages.
Field estimates that the pumps, on average, supply water to between 2 500 and 3 000 people in every community in which they are installed, and that the advertising messages displayed on the storage tanks are read by about 5 000 people, including those passing through the area.
Roundabout Outdoor installs the play-pumps at sites with a large gathering of children, such as school playgrounds, clinics and community centres.
The pumps are manufactured locally in its factory in Springs, on the East Rand.
Roundabout Outdoor would also like to promote the concept in other African countries, as well as India, China and Mexico.
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Edited by: Helene Le Roux
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