Solar-Powered Pump Makers Want to Bring Clean Water to Millions Who Need It

An Austrian company, Pumpmakers, created a do-it-yourself solar water pump system with hopes of bringing clean and safe drinking water to the millions of people around the world who suffer from the lack of it.

In 2012 they unveiled their NSP Solar Pump as the first maintenance-free and corrosion-resistant water pump system that can be manufactured locally, and that runs entirely on solar power, needing no back-up electricity and incurring no additional costs.

Their first installation, in a Mozambique village provides water to about 800 people with a capacity of up to 5,000 liters that are pumped from a depth of 262 feet each day, even when it is cloudy. A hand pump fixture can extract water at night.

What’­s more, the NSP Solar Pump system is inexpensive and can easily be set up to replace pre-installed water pumps, such as hand water pumps, generator-powered pumps or windmill water pumps that are typically found in rural and remote areas.

A new crowdfunding campaign seeks funds to provide some of the harder to find parts cheaply through an online website so that villages everywhere can benefit. The DIY instructions are already online.

(READ more about the lifesaving technology here)

Photo: Pumpmakers photo of founder Dietmar Stuck