ENGINEERS WITHOUTH BORDERS: PlayPump International

The PlayPump systems are innovative, sustainable, patented water pumps powered by children at play. Installed near schools, the PlayPump system doubles as a water pump and a merry-go-round for children. The PlayPump system also provides one of the only ways to reach rural and urban communities with potentially life saving public health message.

THE MISSION
Operating with a slogan of “Kids Play, Water Pumps”, PlayPumps International’s mission is help improve the lives of children and their families by providing easy access to clean drinking water, enhancing public health, and offering play equipment to millions across Africa. PlayPumps International is a Nongovernmental Organization (NGO) registered in South Africa and a sister of three NGOs in the United States. PlayPumps intend to carry out their mission by installing 4,000 PlayPump water systems in 10 countries in sub-Saharan Africa by 2010. This will bring the benefits of clean water to up to 10 million people. More than 1000 PlayPump systems have already been donated to communities in South Africa, Swaziland, Mozambique, and Zambia.

CONTRIBUTORS
There are more than 700 PlayPumps in sub-Saharan Africa, providing clean drinking water to more than one million impoverished people. On September 20, 2006, at the Clinton Global Initiative, First Lady Laura Bush announced a $16.4 million public-private partnership to install more PlayPumps – the beginning of an effort to reach the goal of 4,000 pumps by 2010 to provide water to 10 million Africans. The announcement includes $10 million from the U.S. government, $5 million from the Case Foundation, and $1.4 million from the MCJ Foundation.

THE CREATOR
In 1989, South African advertising executive Trevor Field wasn’t looking to start a charity. One day, during a visit to an agricultural fair outside of Johannesburg, he stumbled across a curious invention; an irrigation system powered by a merry-go-round. As children ran to spin it, they powered a pump that pulled gallon after gallon of water from the ground. He already knew that about as many people die from bad water in South Africa as from HIV or malaria, and most who do are under the age of five.

Trevor Field figured that paying for such a pumping system would be a snap because he could convince a company to slap an ad on the side of the tank. Today 18 years later, Field’s accidental advocacy campaign called PlayPumps has swelled into an international aid organization with offices on both sides of the Atlantic. It has built more than 900 such water systems at a cost of $14,000 each, serving roughly 2 million people in four countries.

Trevor Field’s bright idea to create funding for the PlayPumps is to sell advertising spaces on the PlayPump tower. This is expected generate a lot of money that will be donated for the construction of the PlayPumps.