Abstract

In Cameroon, the government has been importing and installing sophisticated handpumps requiring a costly maintenance program -- a program it can ill afford. There is a need for a locally made handpump that can be maintained by the villagers themselves. The UNIMADE pump, developed by the University of Malaya with assistance from IDRC, meets these criteria. This project field-tests the UNIMADE handpump and modifies it to suit local conditions. Project participants will prepare 20 communities for accepting and maintaining the UNIMADE handpumps; train a local engineer and a local technician in the assembly, installation and maintenance of the handpumps; fabricate 10 above-ground components using the UNIMADE design as a model; install 10 locally adapted models and 10 UNIMADE handpumps in the selected villages; and compare the technical performance and community acceptance of all 20 handpumps, focusing on the technical and economic feasibility of manufacturing them in Cameroon.

Post-Project Summary

Twenty pumps were installed in 20 villages, and an additional pump was installed near the CARE offices at Bertoua. In August 1987, two members of the CARE team and an employee of the Community Development Service took a training course at the University of Malaysia on the assembly, installation and maintenance of pumps. Two individuals in each village were trained to be responsible for maintaining the pumps. The installed pumps were monitored once a month to assess frequency of use; nature and frequency of breakdowns, frequency of repairs; community acceptance; robustness; and technical performance. The team explored the possibility of manufacturing the above-ground portions of the pump locally, and ordered 10 pump heads from local manufacturers. Eight of these were delivered, but at a higher cost than the pump manufactured in Malaysia. It was concluded that neither the cost nor the demand justified local manufacture. However, nearly all the other parts of the UNIMADE pump, such as the stainless steel bolts, were available locally. The results of project monitoring showed that a single pump may be used by more than 1 000 people every day. In some communities, the pump was used throughout the day while in others people had established a schedule to control the frequency of use. Although they were sceptical at the outset of the project, the villagers came to accept the pump once they found that it could be repaired in the village without the lengthy delays experienced in the past. Some villages with both a MONO pump and a UNIMADE expressed interest in exchanging their MONO for a second UNIMADE. In short, the UNIMADE pump was shown to be efficient, economical (in terms of both price and maintenance) and dependable, a factor that is very important to rural people. A pump is considered dependable when, even if subject to relatively frequent breakdowns, it can be promptly repaired within the community itself.

Recipient Institution(s)