Insights

The Impact Pump brings reduced costs and increased reliability to community water points

A queue of women wait at a water point in front of a water tank and solar panel set up

A FlexExtend has been installed for six months to provide a reliable drinking water supply at two sites in Kitui, Kenya. These pumps were a central part of a project to explore improvements in reliability of rural water supplies. Following our completion of the project, we are proud to announce that the results have been extremely positive.

Background to the pilot study

With unreliability of supply and cost of pump maintenance constant challenges within rural communities, there is a clear need for an appropriate solution for community water access. The FlexExtend is a unique solution as it allows surface pumps to access water deep underground; the components below ground have been designed to be very reliable and if the surface pump requires maintenance, the pump can be swapped out in minutes. This means that service engineers, such as Fundifix, who have contracts to maintain these water supplies, are able to complete any maintenance work whilst the FlexExtend continues to supply water to the taps.

We set out to prove that the installation of an Impact Pump can dramatically reduce maintenance challenges and cost, whilst keeping regularity in supply.

More people able to collect more water, at a fraction of the cost

Over the six months, we were able to reduce maintenance costs significantly whilst continuing to sustain a remarkable 99.6% service level. Early indications are that the operating costs of maintenance at sites such as this could be reduced by up to 75% if an Impact Pump solution is installed.

In addition to the technical and financial data collected regarding cost and reliability of supply, we saw a marked increase in demand for water at both sites over the project period. As it became clear that there were reduced waiting times, reduced labour requirements and increased safety of using the water points, more people came to use the water points daily.

As we continue into the next phase of this project, we look forward to sharing more of the achievements that have been made and valuable lessons learned as part of our contribution towards improving community water access across sub-Saharan Africa and beyond.

About the project

This project is in partnership with Fundifix and supported by Innovate UK and the Wellcome Trust.

If you would like to find out more about this project or are interested in how Impact Pumps could benefit your community water site, please get in touch.