accountability

Thirsty Planet and Pump Aid  are committed to a continuing and evolving process of monitoring and evaluation of the outcomes of our programmes in the five key areas of health, education, food security, gender and economic development and learning from the information gathered.

Charities delivering clean water solutions have a responsibility to ensure all pumps are properly maintained. Thirsty Planet and Pump Aid take our responsibility extremely seriously. Our approach is to employ simple, appropriate technology; teach local people how to carry out the work, thereby removing the necessity for specialist support and expensive parts, as well as to allocate adequate resources for a sustainable future.

The effect of inadequate maintenance provision and utilisation of pumps using less appropriate technology can result in very serious reprecussions. Should a solution fail, the benefits for the community can be lost almost immediately and leave them in a far more vulnerable position than even before any intervention at all.

“There is some evidence that raising the standard of water supply services and then letting even occasional short – term failures in water supply or water treatment occur, can very quickly(in a matter of days) reverse many of the hard won public benefits.” “WaterAid – Sustainability Framework” Carter: Feb 2011

“Over the course of a few days of raw (untreated) water consumption, the annual health benefits attributed to consumption of water from an improved supply will almost be lost. Furthermore, risk of illness on days drinking raw water will fall substantially on very young children who have the highest risk of death following infection. Agencies responsible for implementing improved drinking water provision will not make meaningful contributions to public health targets if those systems are subject to poor reliability. Funders of water quality interventions in developing countries should put more effort into auditing whether interventions are sustainable and whether the health benefits are being achieved.’ “Estimating the impact on health of poor reliability of drinking water interventions in developing countries”: Hunter,Zmirou-Navier,Hartemann: April 2009 (Abstract)