It’s often said that big things come in small packages; in the case of Play Pumps International, this old adage couldn’t be more right on. Who would have ever guessed that children, young and old, playing on a merry-go-round could bring water to entire communities? Who would have known that the smallest members of society could help usher in such great change?
It’s been 13 years since the first PlayPump® water system was installed in a small community in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. While attending a South African agricultural fair in 1989, Trevor Field first saw the work of a local engineer who had attached a children’s merry-go-round to a water pump; as children spun, water pumped. In response, Trevor and his business partners launched Roundabout Outdoor, an organization that would provide fresh, clean water to communities in need using the merry-go-round/pump system along with a large storage tank and relevant advertising about HIV/AIDS crisis. Although the project started small, by 1997, they had installed 20 pump systems in needy communities across South Africa and had plans for many more.
In 2000, Roundabout Outdoor won the World Bank Development Marketplace Award for its creative solution to the water crisis and effective messaging about HIV/AIDS, gaining significant publicity and support from around the world. The organization, now known as PlayPumps International, is headquartered in South Africa with over 900 PlayPump water systems installed in the last 10 years across South Africa, Mozambique, Swaziland, and Zambia.
With 1.1 billion people in the world currently without access to clean, safe drinking water, PlayPumps International exists not only as a necessity, but also as a fun way to address a very serious need. Unsafe water and lack of sanitation is responsible for 80% of disease and illness in the developing world; with a well, communities are able to grow, develop, and thrive. Kathleen Grealish, Director of Partnership Development for PlayPumps International, believes that access to safe water is a crucial piece of community development. “Clean drinking water is arguably the centerpiece of community development and affects the individual members of each community so profoundly,” she says.
As a PlayPumps International team member, Grealish has had the opportunity to visit PlayPumps sites and witness the benefits of the merry-go-round within communities.
“For me, visiting schools that benefit from PlayPump systems is an incredible experience, particularly getting to hear the children singing as they spin. It definitely is a sense of happiness that you take with you. The community members were very appreciative of the PlayPump system and the opportunities it provides. One group of teachers we met decided to use excess water to plant a vegetable garden in the schoolyard, providing a nutritious supplement to their school feeding programs. Seeing how one small act we may make through a donation creates so many opportunities for others to make things better for themselves was uplifting!”
The nature of the PlayPump system is entirely unique in its approach; as the children sit, spin and run around the merry-go-round, the water is pumped from deep within the ground through a series of pipes that run it into a storage basin above ground, and the water is then accessible to community members at the simple turn of a tap. The storage basin allows continual (and sustainable) access to clean water at all times, so that residents are able to live free of the myriad of waterborne diseases and extreme distances they formerly had to walk to gather water. With greater health, community members are able to attend school, work, and participate in other activities that illness kept them from in the past.
As Kathleen Grealish has discovered, water, a seemingly insignificant commodity to us, has the ability to really change lives. “In each community I visited I was struck by how happy the people were. Despite not having all the things that we take for granted on a daily basis, they seem much happier, warmer and more welcoming. It reminded me that the things we strive for in terms of material goods can never bring real happiness.” But as children run around, laughing and singing, they are providing the water that will change the chemistry of the community they live in; they will, in their joy, bring clean water to their families, friends, and neighbors.
It is that profound happiness and life change that keeps PlayPumps Interntional constantly growing and pushing for more pumps, in more communities, in a variety of countries across Africa. “In total, 4,000 PlayPump water systems will bring the benefits of clean drinking water to up to 10 million people in 10 countries by 2010, enabling improvements in health, education, gender equality and economic development.”( from playpumps.org).
