Roundabout Water Solutions

Roundabout Water Solutions, who has an agreement with the South African Department of Water Affairs and the Governments of Malawi, Lesotho and Swaziland, is raising donor funds to supply rural communities, with clean drinking water, by means of a sustainable pumping system, called a PlayPump, that is powered by the play of children.

As the children play on the roundabout, borehole water, which has been tested at a recognized laboratory as being fit for human consumption, is pumped into and stored in a 2,500 litre tank, allowing access to the water when needed.

Since 2008 Roundabout Water Solutions has installed over 640 PlayPumps in South Africa, Malawi, Lesotho and Swaziland. The first PlayPump was installed in 1996 and now there are over 1 700 PlayPumps in sub-Saharan Africa, resulting in clean drinking water and sanitation for people who previously had no reliable or safe sources of water.

In South Africa alone hundreds (3000?) of schools have no clean drinking water available at their school. Girls are taken out of school to collect water. A PlayPump at a school results in girls attending, the cases of diarrhoea are dramatically reduced and school attendance improves. Children attend school because they enjoy playing on the PlayPump.

Rural communities, who have no municipal water, are also forced to collect their water from streams, dams and unreliable water sources. Women and girls have to walk anything up to 5 kms a day to collect water for their household, with no guarantee that the water collected is fit for human consumption.

Bacteriological and chemical testing is done on each borehole to ensure that the water is fit for human consumption. A step down test to ensure that the borehole can sustain prolonged abstraction of the water and the flow is sufficient to meet the needs of the community. Each and every borehole is referred to a qualified geo-hydroloogist for analysis of the water results and a recommendation of the most suitable pump settings to ensure a sustainable flow of water and ease of use by the community.

Maintenance is performed by trained, locally sourced maintenance crews. The spare parts are provided free of charge to the community. All sites have a free pump repair SMS number whereby they can report a problem to our office

Roundabout Water Solutions (RWS) is a South African registered non-profit (section 21) company (registration no 2008/009247/08) which is also registered as a Public Benefit Organisation (PBO No 930027988) with the South African Revenue Services and is able to give South Africa companies a Section 18A tax certification on their donation. RWS is an independently run Nonprofit Organization (No 071-197-NPO).

3 Responses to “Roundabout Water Solutions”

1. roundaboutwater says:

   December 12, 2011 at 10:08 AM

   Hi Jorrie,

   You can contact Sandra.Hayes@playpumps.co.za

   Reply
2. roundaboutwater says:

   December 12, 2011 at 11:57 AM

   Hi Maurice,

   Firstly let me apologise for the late response. In reply to both of your comments, we have found from experience that a 2,500 Litre tank is usually adequate as the water is mostly drawn off as the children play.

   As to the height and diameter we find that smaller children under the age of 6 years are too small to push the PlayPump and we therefore only put them at schools where the children are aged between 6 to 14 which seems to be the best age, but we will look at the idea of a lower PlayPump. All suggestions are very gratefully received.

   Thank you

   Reply
3. roundaboutwater says:

   December 12, 2011 at 12:00 PM

   Dear Kobus,

   Thank you for the interest shown in the Playpump. We are really concentrating on bringing clean drinking water to rural communities where there is no municipal or piped water. If you would like to discuss this further please feel free to contact Sandra Hayes on 011-5437928

   Kind regards

   Reply