CONSALLEN DEEP WELL HAND PUMPS  The best engineered handpumps in the world

The Consallen deepwell hand pump shown here is one of about 2000 installed in Uganda Charity as part of a community programme to improve the quality of water available to villagers. The pump is set on a hand dug well about 35 metres deep, and serves a community of some 300 people. The pump deliveres about 20 litres per minute, and roughly 5-6,000 litres a day. It was installed in 1993, and is supplied with spares as required by the project, and the average cost of operating and maintaining the pumps in this group has been USD 10 a year for the last 18 years. The cost per person served is minute. Such a performance can only be achieved by investing in a pump with good engineering at the outset. It cannot be done by making cheapness the only selection criterion.