FairWater has a different approach than other NGOs for water projects in Africa.

We start with implementing a service provider, than install durable water pumps.

In the last 20 years, all over Africa, many NGOs have installed more than 350.000 wells with handpumps, but today, less than 50% is still functional; millions of people have now lost their water supply and go back to unsafe water sources, often far away.

What went wrong?  How can we do better?

NGOs installed water pumps and trained people in the village for maintenance, but these pumps keep breaking down; without a professional regional back-up this old NGO approach is not sustainable.

FairWater instead, makes "BlueZones" all over Africa.
In a BlueZone, a local company provides professional services of installation & maintenance and installs & maintaines the reliable BluePump, the innovative Dutch handpump, that is easy to use and can be maintained at less than 5 US$ per family per year.

Water is important for all of us. In western countries, good quality water is normally available on tap and we easily use 100 to 200 liters p.p. a day. But in rural Africa this is different. In these small towns and villages, people have no water from a tap. The main source of water is often a handpump in a well. This water is used for drinking, cooking, washing and for home gardens and livestock. Therefore many donor projects constructed wells equipped with handpumps and people were happy initially. What they didn't realize was that maintenance of these handpumps would become their next major problem.

The typical story heared all over Africa goes like this: Our village had no water in the dry season, so often we had to walk for many hours every day. One day, a group of people passed by, they said they were from an organization that wanted to help us. They came again and made a well with a handpump and explained how to repair it. In the beginning we were very happy, because the water was close-by and clean. We had all the water we needed for our families and to grow some vegetables. But after a while, less and less water was coming out of the pump. Sometimes, in the morning, there was no water at all and we had to pump for half an hour to get some water again.

We looked at the broken pump, and found somebody to do the repair, but soon the water disappeared again. The repair was not done properly, so we asked somebody else, who asked even more money for the repair. But soon the same happened again and again ... and again ... In the end, we ran out of money and hope. Now we don't know anymore where to go to.
The nice people that made the well and installed the handpump had gone. With no more spare parts or people we can trust to do repairs we really don't know anymore what to do. So now we walk again hours for water. This is not easy, therefore we only use very little water every day. We don't grow vegetables anymore. If these people come back again, they should give us a better pump or tell us where to go for help, because what they did before does not make much sense to us.

Sustainability of the water source is now rapidly becoming the major problem in Africa. A recent RWSN report 4, May 2010 indicates that handpumps on average are abandoned within 3 to 5 years. This is the real problem Africa is facing now. Community handpumps are breaking down all the time and repairs are becoming a major and costly issue.

The average handpump serves 50 families; that is about 300 people and 50 children under 3 years of age. For the parents, a broken handpump often means inconvenience, but for small children it is often the difference between life and death. Especially children under 3 years of age are very vulnerable to unsafe water. When a handpump breaks down, this means serious problems for them.

It is not every day's news, but thousands of young children die of dehydration each year, simply because handpumps break down. Babies with dehydration die without making much noise, they just lay down and are silently gone within a few days.

Dehydration is a ghost killer. Amazingly enough, the relation between children dying from dehydration and broken down handpumps is not very well known to the public and most NGOs. Otherwise, they would focus and change to more reliable handpump immediatly.

In every village in Africa, many families have lost babies due to handpumps that couldn't be repaired anymore... So, no time to waste!

RWSN has also concluded that the focus should be more on sustainability, but that many NGOs continue as before, as if they are unaware of this maintenance problem. A first and important step would be to use more reliable handpumps. This may cost a bit more, but the investment will pay back itself with time.  FairWater rings a bell and proposes at the same time a simple and sustainable alternative.

The innovative FairWater BlueZone Approach
The above mentioned problems are huge, and it is clear that some drastic changes are needed to solve these problems. Therefore FairWater developed and introduced a complete new and innovative approach for Africa that will change the lives of millions of people. The FairWater BlueZone Approach guarantees sustainable & affordable water supply and is therefore in most cases the best sustainable approach for rural water projects.

The FairWater BlueZone approach is based on the simple concept of first putting in place a durable maintenance service, and only when this is established, to start with rehabilitation of broken pumps and other water projects to fill up the BlueZone.
This is distinctively a different order of activities compared with the "traditional" NGO approach, which only work with comminities, but have no sustaiable plan for the maintenance.
Because of economics of scale, the individual communities pay very little for the maintenance of their pump; For less than 5 US$ per family per year they have now a reliable water supply.

The traditional "standard" NGO approach dates from some 25 years ago and has never been changed. It is based on a "community centered approach", i.e. the NGOs go directly to a community or a school and install a well with a standard, cheap (but fragile) handpump. For the long term maintenance of the pump, they expect the people to organize this by themselves. There is no plan for long term follow up. In fact, apart from training some local people how to do repairs, the NGOs are not committed to sustainability of the water point. The poor & devastating result of this old standard approach is described above and needs no further explanation; it simply doesn't work.

The Water Service Provider (WSP) starts with the rehabilitation of broken down handpumps (see picture left) in communities, schools and health centers. With every BluePump a local caretaker is responsible for the pump. Users only pay a small fair fee to the caretaker to fetch water, per bucket or per week.

Only in the rare case of unlikely repairs, the caretaker collects from the users a small contribution for repairs which is never more than 2,- US$ per family.

The reliability, simplicity and low-cost maintenance of the BluePump's design make it sustainable. FairWater supports the WSP for a few years, by providing funds for handpump replacements. Our donors sponsor this process for a fixed price of  € 2.500,- per installation, which is not complicated and done within a few hours. It is our experience that, once a few broken handpumps are replaced by durable BluePumps, more and more communities want to be connected and ask for BluePumps as well. Soon, other NGOs in the area pick up the idea and also ask for these services. Within a few years, the WSP has built up a durable self-propelling business with installation and maintenance of BluePumps. The BlueZone concept is a simple solution that can easily be scaled up. It's not expensive, it is sustainable.

The WSP maintains a good contact with the caretakers in the communities. It they are happy, the BlueZone works. Therefore, Fairwater and the WSP facilitate the caretakers to offer water related services to their clients that provides for a small additional income to the caretaker. This all adds up in making the water point more useful and sustainable. 

Additional service can be, for instance, a pubic laundry facility, see picture left. Women can use this facility for a small fee. They prefer to bring cloths for washing to the pump, instead of carrying large amount of water home on their heads. To protect them from the burning sun, the laundry can have a shading roof.
The roof can be used to mount solar panels. With the solar power the caretaker can recharge batteries that people use in their home to have light in the evening. Extra service brings additional income. 

In the Fairwater BlueZone approach the regional WSP works together with the caretakers in an "integrated business" concept, creating additional benefits for both and increasing sustainability. This makes sense, and is accepted by the communities, as they also profit from more service at a lower price.

What is so special about the Dutch BluePump?
-  very reliable and simple, with a maintenance free pump system
-  maintenance cost less than 5 US$ per family per year;
-  durable: lasting a lifetime, total replacement never needed
-  easy to repair in case of a problem, no complicated parts;
-  supported by a professional back-up from local private sector;
-  connected to the FairWater international Guarantee Fund;
-  able to pump water from up to 100m of depth.

Who is using BluePumps already?
Over 500 BluePumps already provide for safe & sustainable water supply to more than 250 communities (over 150.000 people) at a Fair Price!
Organizations that installed or sponsored 10 to 80 BluePumps in Africa in their own projects are Unicef (Mozambique), IRD (Swaziland & Mozambique), UNDP Millennium Village Project (Tanzania), Global Resources Alliances (Tanzania),
Oxfam (in Mozambique and Northern Kenya, see picture),  ADRA (Niger); ASAP (Burkina),  Sanex Zero% (Gambia), Jointhepipe.org (CAR and Tanzania), Samatarian Purse (Mozambique). Furthermore, there are many smaller NGOs that use only a few BluePumps, but are desperately waiting for more funding to install more; the need and demand is very high...

Where can you order BluePumps?
The internationale distributor of the BluePump is Boode B.V. in The Netherlands. BluePumps can be delivered anywhere in the world on short term notice; normaly 40 to 50 BluePumps fit in a container, depending on the number of PVC pipes needed. Smaller quantities can also be airlifted. In case you need assistance to make a specific order, FairWater can assist you and propose the most cost-effective solution for your project. The BluePump is also available from stock in several African countries by BluePump Dealers in Kenya, Mozambique and Gambia.

FairWater projects are evidence based, results count; It is time for action, we think there has been too much talking already.

We care about the future, so we care about our children
Because kids are the future, FairWater started a special program to rehabilitate broken down water pumps at schools in our BlueZones in Africa. Maintenance of school water pumps is especially problematic. It is estimated that over 75% of all school pumps are already non-functional. For every € 2.500, - we replace a broken down handpump with a BluePump in FairWater BlueZones in Gambia, Burkina Faso or Tanzania, in collaboration with our above listed partners. In addition to this, we include also a "schoolgarden" program to our school pumps.

CrowdFunding is also an option to support FairWater
Besides donating a pump, companies and individuals can also help to pre-finance our work so we can already start replacing broken pumps at schools. We will pay back your loan once we have found a sponsor for that pump.

Our Sponsors
Our sponsors are Green Companies and persons that:
- care about environement and a sustainable future;
- want to help the people in Africa
- are aware of the importance of safe water;
- know that only durable solutions makes sense;
- see the logic of cost-effective replacements;
- want to know what happens with their funding;
- want to see results that last;
- want to promote local business.

Click here to find out how (and if...) you can become a FairWater sponsor.

With a single drop of "FairWater"

we will change the world

the "African" way; one drop at the time ...

"Every drop counts"