Water scarcity is a major problem in Africa where people, especially women and girls, on an average spend six hours every day looking for clean drinking water. A South African NGO has donated and installed 1000 unique water pumps to communities in South Africa, Mozambique, Swaziland and Zambia. This merri-go-round water pump has turned pumping water from underground well to an overhead tank built seven meters above ground literally into a child’s game.
The merri-go-round water pump requires spinning the roundabout to lift water to fill the 2,500-liter tank. This water pump uses human energy and does not require electricity that is not in abundant supply in the continent. As children spinaround the playable roundabout, it transfers their energy into vertical motion that pumps water from an underground borehole to the tank where the water is stored. This pump is effective up to a depth of 100 meters and with children spinning it 16 times every minute, the pump can lift 1,400 liters of water per hour from a depth of 40 meters.
Source: Treehugger
