Frequently Asked Questions
Here are some of the questions we often get asked. If there’s anything else you would like to know, please get in touch.
So what exactly is going into the bottle?
All Thirsty Planet products are made from high quality spring water. However, current legislation doesn’t allow this to be stated on the bottle if other products are packed from the same source.
What minerals are in Thirsty Planet water?
The Typical Mineral Analysis for Thirsty Planet water is below. However Thirsty Planet can be packed anywhere in the world if the water source is of high enough quality so the analysis may vary slightly from this in the future.
TYPICAL ANALYSIS (mg/litre)
CALCIUM 52.7mg/l Ca
MAGNESIUM 17.5mg/l Mg
SODIUM 6.15mg/l Na
FLUORIDE 0.157mg/l F
BICARBONATE 235mg/l HC03
CHLORIDE 27.6mg/l Cl
NITRATE <1mg/l NO3
SULPHATE 7.2mg/l SO4
pH (at source) 7.0
How exactly is the money raised?
It’s really very straight forward. Every pack and bottle of Thirsty Planet states exactly how much money is being donated from the purchase. Every penny of that is then paid over to the charity.
Where does the money go?
Every penny that is raised from the sale of Thirsty Planet is paid over to the charity Pump Aid each month. We work closely with them to forecast the funding so that they can plan ahead and be as cost effective and efficient as possible. Our auditors report annually on this activity.
Why has Thirsty Planet chosen to work with Pump Aid?
Quite simply, Pump Aid proved to be the best managed and most effective water charity in its field. We spent a long time looking at who we should work with and decided that the work being carried out by Pump Aid over the past ten years had proved to be cost effective and above all, sustainable.
How is Thirsty Planet different from other charity waters?
Thirsty Planet is different in two ways. Firstly, customers know exactly how much money is being donated to the charity at the time they buy the product and secondly, Thirsty Planet’s relationship with Pump Aid means that clean water can be brought to people in Africa for a fraction of the price of some other solutions. It only costs 50p to give someone clean water for life!
What kind of pumps do you use?
Pump Aid installs Elephant pumps. These pumps, based on a 2,000-year-old Chinese design, are very simple and cheap to construct, maintain and repair. The simplicity of its design means the Elephant pump can be sited virtually anywhere in Africa, even in remote areas which other agencies reliant on drilling rigs and large commercial vehicles couldn’t reach.
Labour and material costs add up to £500 for preparing a well and installing an Elephant pump. Material costs in Zimbabwe have risen over the last 18 months because of the economic crisis there. Materials such as concrete and pipework which were available locally now have to be brought in from surrounding countries, which has added significantly to the cost.
You may have spotted that Thirsty Planet’s packaging still quotes a price of £250 per pump. Due to the increase in costs for the pump we are introducing updated packaging in early 2010. Until then Pump Aid has agreed to match our funding to ensure the building programme is maintained in Malawi and Zimbabwe. The guaranteed donation for every bottle of Thirsty Planet sold is not affected.
Maintenance costs however are minimal as repairs can be carried out by local people using easily available materials. At any one time 95 per cent of Elephant pumps are working and the first pumps, built more than 10 years ago, are still going strong.
Pump Aid wants to double the amount of water every beneficiary receives by increasing the density of pumps. The target is 40 litres per person per day, not just for personal use, but also to water livestock and to irrigate vegetable gardens and fruit trees, giving people a better diet and the chance to earn money by selling surplus crops at the market.
Currently Pump Aid is building three new pumps every single day.
What advantages do Elephant pumps have over other kinds of pumps?
Because of their simple design, Elephant pumps actually work better with hand-dug wells rather than drilled bore holes. Holes can be dug much wider by hand, which means a better store of water can be created without having to dig too deep. Not using drilling equipment saves thousands of pounds per pump – Elephant pumps are up to twenty five times cheaper to install than pumps used by other charities. It also means wells can be dug in hard-to-reach places inaccessible to heavy machinery. Much of the countryside in sub-Saharan Africa where Pump Aid operates has a good water supply which can easily be reached without having to drill.
Elephant pumps do not use a piston, which means the seals placed on top of the wells to keep the water sanitary are less likely to crack through repetitive use. Again, their simple design is an advantage in that the people who receive a pump are able to carry out any maintenance work that might be required, with training provided by Pump Aid, using cheap, locally-sourced materials such as bits of plastic and plant fibres. More complicated pumps can cost several hundred pounds every year just to keep in working order.
Elephant pumps are quick and efficient, being capable of extracting a litre of water every second. They are designed to be self-cleaning so they do not clog up, and because excess water is diverted to storage tanks or vegetable gardens, hardly any water is wasted – essential during the long dry seasons. And because they are hand or foot-powered, they are also very environmentally-friendly.
What are your targets?
Initially, we have focussed on bringing clean water to at least 10,000,000 people by 2015. This is the timescale set by the UN when it identified its Millenium Development Goals (MDG) back in 2000.
What packaging do you use?
At present we use lightweight PET plastic for all our bottles. There is currently a significant premium for recycled PET and not sufficient material available in the market. We are confident that this will change in the near future. There is a new plastic made from corn starch (PLA) but at the moment this technology is not scalable or particularly efficient. PLA is also difficult to recycle and has a very short shelf life.
We are working with all our packaging suppliers to introduce as much recycled material as possible. We’re sure that there will be improvements in packaging in the near future and we are committed to adopting these when they are proven and sustainable. Visit our environment page for more information.
What about food miles?
We pack the product in the north of England and on the Welsh border. It’s in all our interests to keep distribution costs and mileage to a minimum. Thirsty Planet can be packed anywhere in the world provided the water source is of a high enough quality, and food miles is a major consideration in how we manage the growth and development of the brand.