AIDFI Ram Pump

There are hundreds of thousands of upland waterless villages and rainfed farms all over the world without easy access to drinking, household, or irrigation water.  The limited volume of water available creates tremendous challenges on health, sanitation, livelihood opportunities for the households. The rainfed upland farms are in risk of losing their only crop and not being able to add a second crop or diversify. 

In most cases however there are sources below the villages and farms which can be tapped by the AIDFI ram pump, to bring water in the village or farm automatically (24/7) in a high volume.  AIDFI installs the systems in a holistic program of social preparation (creating ownership and sustainability over the technology) and continued monitoring.  AIDFI can help change the lives of hundreds of thousand people by sharing the technology and approach to other countries as it did to Afghanistan, Nepal, Colombia, and Mexico.

Some 2.1 billion people lack access to safe, readily available water at home, and 4.5 billion people lack safely managed sanitation, according to a new report by WHO and UNICEF.  https://www.who.int/news/item/12-07-2017-2-1-billion-people-lack-safe-drinking-water-at-home-more-than-twice-as-many-lack-safe-sanitation

Agriculture on the other hand is mostly rainfed and according to the FAO ranging from 95% in sub Saharan to 60% in South Asia https://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/issues/rainfed-agriculture/summary/

For upland areas, what this entry is all about, particular data is hard to find but there must be at least 500 million people lacking easy access worldwide. The irony is that we expect the uplanders to protect our natural resources but that they themselves do not have easy access to water for drinking, household and irrigation.  This results in many health, sanitation, economic and social challenges for the households. In terms of the rainfed agriculture, the farmers have a hard time surviving dry season and often engage themselves in destructive activities: small scale logging, charcoal making, animal hunting or migrate to the cities.

Evidence is emerging that climate change is increasing rainfall variability and the frequency of extreme events such as droughts (IPCC 2001), which will make life in the uplands even more challenging with as result more migration.

Our solution is a crossbreed model of the hydraulic ram pump, a device which utilizes the energy contained in falling water to pump a portion of the water passing through it to a much higher elevation, without the use of fuel or electricity and without emission of Green House Gasses. It is conversion of velocity into pressure.

The AIDFI model is helping this forgotten technology making a comeback.  There is a huge potential for the ram pump to supply hundreds of thousands of upland villages and farms with free-flowing water and change the lives of millions.

The ram pump fabricated by AIDFI is unique since it is based on local available materials and spare parts, with as the main spare part an ordinary door hinge. The AIDFI ram is as efficient and has the same capacities at the cost of only 10% of imported models. The manufacturing is taking place in a 650 m2 with precision machines equipped workshop like the CAD operated cutting and grinding machines, which can easily produce the volume with present and future expected demand by the ram projects of AIDFI and other installers.  The shop is manned by, in the ram pump technology, trained technicians.

The target beneficiaries are the uplanders who are living in waterless communities or work on waterless farms.  Most of the beneficiaries are engaged in rain fed agriculture and can be considered poor to very poor.  Among our beneficiaries are also Indigenous Communities.

AIDFI was formed by a group of four who had worked with sugar workers in a big farmlots program for years and had integrated in their communities.  Most of the plantations which were in hills and mountains did not have easy access to water.  Having more and easier access to water was expressed always as their number one problem.

When AIDFI was formed and the focus was on solving water issues, it was discovered that the reasons why those upland communities were not served with drinking, household or irrigation water was that the areas were far flung and isolated and therefore difficult to work in, not enough voters population to ‘invest’ in, being with the wrong political party, security and absence of knowledge of technologies which can pump up water over very high elevations.

Despite many countries, including the Philippines where we operate, targeting SDG 6 and SDG 2 among other SDGs they have not reached the last mile, and this is exactly where these waterless communities and farms are situated.

Eventhough the problems of being waterless in terms of drinking, household or irrigation water are rather similar anywhere, the design of the system is site dependent in terms of volume of water available, elevations, distances, number of households or farms and water requirement.

A first step is always an actual survey in which AIDFI involves local community members who know the behavior of the water source over seasons, the owners of the land where the pipes will pass, or the reservoir has to be built and so on.  A technical study is made with a system design, expected minimum and maximum output, itemized list of materials and costing.  This study is either used by AIDFI to present to a certain funder or by the client (community, association, local government unit or agency, or individual) to seek funding.

When funding is found and allows for a complete holistic program which AIDFI prefers, the community facilitators start working with the community or group of farmers with orientations in which the system is explained and clarified if needed. Important is always to make the expected volume very clear by explaining it in 200 liters drums/barrels per day and how the technology really works by setting up of a working miniature set of the ram pump.

The whole process of AIDFI is circling around the idea of creating ownership and therefore control over the project and technology and which requires the beneficiaries to be involved in all steps taken.  In terms of sustainable management, a water association is setup, registered and trained which is democratic in which each beneficiary has one vote and equal rights.  In fact, many women, for who water is a very vital issue, are becoming active officers.  There are even some associations of nearly all women officers.  The AIDFI community facilitators partner with the officers in introducing the association to local government units (village and town level) and agencies for recognition and possible future cooperation or funding.  Also, they work hand in hand in organizing trainings and the local labor needed in the implementation, such as hauling, actual construction and pipelaying.  Then they help in the search for local villagers to be trained in the operation, repair, and maintenance of the ram pump systems.  Based on criteria set out by the association, the members receive a household water filter of which the distribution is done in an official event.  Then there is the official turnover of the project in which besides community members, local government officials, AIDFI representatives, media, and the sponsor attend.  For continuous monitoring of the project the association receives a mobile phone with monitoring app for which they sign a contract and are being trained in the use.

For drinking and household purpose the ram pumps protected by concrete housing, bring the water uphill to an at the higher point in the village positioned reservoir from where water is distributed by pipelines to clusters of households.  Water is not delivered in the houses by private connections by rather near their doorsteps through public tapstands or water kiosks which mostly serve an average of ten households.  In the past the systems had a series of public tapstands and the members paid a monthly contribution, democratically decided by the associations.  Unfair distribution caused lots of challenges with non-payment by certain members and at the end a shortage of budget for the allowances of the local village technicians.  Then a water kiosk was designed and powered by a solar panel and lots of electronics.  At the start the kiosks, placed in two actual ram pump villages as a pilot, worked well and even resulted in a 3-4 times higher collection of fees.  Then there were too many issues with the sensitive electronics and the reality of difficulties in knowledge for repair and maintenance and the sourcing of the parts.  During the Covid-19 period a long time brainstormed mechanical version of the water kiosk was realized and is working now perfectly.  It is based on a gumball machine mechanism and the flash system used in toilets.

The system now works on the more you use, the more you pay.  The users do not feel a one-time burden of payment but rather the unnoticed spread expenses over the month.  It is like buying a few cigarettes all the time at small community stores, you do not realize the total amount spent for it. The money collected from the kiosks stays with the water association and is used for allowances, repair and maintenance, expansion and even other forms of small-scale livelihood benefitting its members.

The experience is that households go from an average of 40 liters/month to an average of 400 liters/day. This changes completely the lives of the beneficiaries in terms of:

- health: diminished skin diseases by more frequent bathing, near eradication of water borne diseases using the provided water filter, improved nutrition from growing and consuming vegetables and raising of animals (including fish) and more regular housecleaning

- sanitation:  toilets/bathrooms are being built by the households, provide privacy and proper sanitation and safety for women who no longer have to go out of their house at night

- social: kids less absent from school caused by water fetching, possibility to do laundry near the houses, women no longer need to go outdoor for their defecation, time saved from water fetching can be used for other useful activities

- economic: money saved from water fetching, extra income from vegetable growing and animal raising, or other water related economic activities, money saved from health-related issues avoided by more and safe water.

For the rainfed upland farms the hydraulic ram pump systems set up by AIDFI have a huge impact.  There is the potential for doubling and often tripling or quadrupling productivity in these rainfed farming systems. This will contribute to fighting poverty, reducing environmental degradation, and building resilience to climate change; allow for a more balanced rural-urban development; and ultimately contribute to sustainability.

The cost for irrigation through the AIDFI ram pump for the farmers is very minimal and lays not in the operation but just in a few very cheap and easily available spare parts. There is no need for buying and transporting of fuel.  This transport of fuel over distances and elevations can be very expensive.  In contrast to fuel or electricity driven water pumps, the AIDFI ram pump can be repaired and maintained by the trained farmers themselves. 

The water being pumped uphill can help farmers to survive their only crop in sudden droughts. That is a very big deal since without irrigation they might lose their only crop and spiral down economically into deep poverty and end up migrating to the cities.  With irrigation water from ram pumps, the farmers can also have their second crop or diversify, especially into higher value crops, such as fruits or vegetables. Once farmers can grow more lucrative crops, they are on the road to livelihood and food security.

Technologies such as the ram pump and techniques such as terracing (through contour farming), organic fertilizer production and intercropping make farming again attractive to the kids of the farmers.  It makes farming again an option rather than the only choice of migrating.  The average age of the farmers in the Philippines is estimated between 58-60 years and this threatens the food security.  Technologies and techniques which are appropriate to the locality and the culture, can make the farmers again proud.  At present most of them suffer from inferiority.

With their improved livelihood and food security there will be less pressure on our ecosystems.  It is therefore important that environmental awareness is incorporated in bringing this appropriate technologies and techniques under the attention of the farmers and villagers through orientations and trainings.  The ultimate would be covenants between the farmers, villagers, and local village councils to protect their natural resources.  The beauty is that such is no longer just abstract theory but very necessary for the sustainability of their own farms and communities.  What is for example still the use of a ram pump if the water source is diminishing or being polluted from animal or human waste.  The connection of concrete and actual environmental issues related to the farmers and villagers can be the entry point for bigger environmental awareness.

The idea of AIDFI is also not just to bring up water either for drinking, household, or irrigation but really to trigger further development.  For this very reason, the water associations being setup are empowered and introduced to local village and town government units and agencies.

There are several very successful water associations which start to thrive without further intervention of AIDFI. 

AIDFI’s role is a short term social and technical intervention with only a continued monitoring through mobile phone app or technical and/or organizational backstopping if required or requested.  There have been however two exemptions where AIDFI initiated production of Lemongrass for Essential Oil Production in two upland villages here on the island of Negros in the Philippines which were made possible after water was being brought up by ram pump systems.  It is besides the entry of AIDFI with its hydraulic ram pump, but AIDFI started out after its formation in 1992 with two main programs: Appropriate Technologies and Sustainable Agriculture in Agrarian Reformed Communities.  Later on, the focus of AIDFI shifted towards its technologies and more and more on its ram pump model which became the flagship and provides 90% of its work.  AIDFI despite no longer having a particular agriculture program, has a big heart for upland agriculture.  AIDFI also wanted to proof that eroded slopes and farmers in extreme poverty is not an irreversible situation.  Transporting high volume of products out of the far-flung areas is expensive and therefore the idea was born to introduce production and processing of Lemongrass in the middle of the area.  This against all basic principles of investing or doing business.  It would indeed take many years to get for AIDFI out of a breakeven situation but as of this moment there is a mutual benefit for the farmer families who run the little factories we built in their communities and AIDFI.

The two communities are both upland and far flung but diver in character.  In the Southern village the farmers relied on growing corn on the slopes and of which the production has severely diminished over the years and could mostly be done once a year and with a dryer windier climate than the second village which is higher up in the mountains on the middle of the island.  The beneficiaries there are former sugar workers turned farmers through the Agrarian Reform Program.  The climate is much less drier and the soil more fertile.

It was difficult in the past to expect upland villagers to protect our natural resources such as water, since they themselves had no easy access and did not have sufficient means to survive, resulting in environmental destructive activities.  With the earlier described impacts created by the use of the ram pump, there is no longer the need to engage in such activities and with increased environmental awareness the upland villagers and farmers can be a sustainable part of our under reconstruction biodiverse ecosystem, like the two AIDFI partners engaged in Lemongrass production and processing after ram pumps brought in water.

AIDFI has been working with its AIDFI ram pump model since its founding in 1992.  The first period 1992-1998 was that of survival and small experiments with ram pump models and other renewable energy technologies.  From 1998-2006 was a period of project to project and promotion of the ram pump technology which got more focus. From 2006-2012 the ram was produced in higher quantity, quality and more sizes with the construction of a big shop with precision machines. Technology Transfer was carried out to Afghanistan, Nepal, and Colombia.  From 2012 to present the ram got into programs from the Department of Agriculture and Coca-Cola Foundation.  More and more a holistic approach was developed. The workshop doubled in size and a Technology Transfer to Mexico was organized.  A total of 580 villages received an installation, benefitting some 290,000 beneficiaries.  Then the AIDFI ram can be found in already fifteen countries.

The solution is in different ways innovative: technology, approach, and organization. 

Technology: the AIDFI ram pump is a unique crossbreed of old existing expensive and hard to import industrial models and the many DIY models developed over the last four decades.  The result: a robust and efficient model based on local materials and spare parts at only 10% of the cost of industrial models.  AIDFI is continuously innovating and lately it designed a mechanical water kiosk based on a gumball coin acceptor and toilet flush system which provides 20 liters water on a coin.  The kiosks are integrated in the distribution system of the ram pump. Then AIDFI developed a monitoring app with a mobile phone and web-based platform.

Approach: since the ram pump systems are community owned and operated, AIDFI developed a holistic approach around the systems carried out by Community Facilitators. This concerns the setup, registration, training and introduction to local government units and agencies of water associations, involvement of members in hauling, actual construction and pipelaying and training of local technicians.

Organization: AIDFI is a social enterprise owned by its members (regular staff and some affiliates) which results in a strong sense of ownership and commitment.  Eventhough not for profit, profit made on technologies or systems are being re-invested in the organization.  AIDFI’s assets are technologies, skilled staff, land, buildings, machines, and trucks.

AIDFI works in far flung and remote areas where its combination of technologies, approach and organization makes it attractive for cooperation with different stakeholders.

Over 1100 ram pumps of different sizes have been installed in 580 villages and farms, benefitting some 290.000 people.

On a yearly basis AIDFI was able to do around 20-25 systems which would be a 10.000 – 12.500 people served. With local individual installers and the groups in Afghanistan, Nepal and Colombia the total (including AIDFI) might reach 75.000 people/year served. This can reach 100.000 if the two planned Technology Transfers to India and Bhutan will push through.

Coming five years a number of around 80.000 people can be directly served by AIDFI.  Then there are the ram pumps bought by other local installation teams and which can also reach another total of 80.000 people. In the countries where Technology Transfer was carried out similar numbers can be reached.   Considering that possible Technology Transfer will take place to another two countries the total will probably reach some 500.000 people can be served with AIDFI ram pumps in the coming five years.

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The ram pump projects are basically a short intervention from the side of AIDFI.  In the relative short period of preparing and implementing the projects AIDFI staff does its very best to lay the groundwork for a sustainable water system and organization in the hope that further development is triggered.  For that reason, AIDFI introduces the water associations it sets up to local government units and agencies.  What AIDFI does monitor is basic data like water volume delivered, monthly fees collected, and repair and maintenance carried out.  Some 27 water associations are being monitored through a mobile app provided to them and monthly three additional associations are receiving a mobile phone with training in usage.

A few years ago, four impact studies in upland villages which received a ram pump system were made and confirmed what we had commonly seen and heard in terms of improvements and empowerment. The studies however were all post implementations.

AIDFI lately won the Gelia Castillo Award for Research on Social Innovations in Health and with that a research grant with mentorship.  The idea is to carry out a very rigid research in two similar waterless upland villages, both target for a ram pump installation.  Implement the sites with an interval and observe changes.  The research will be done in partnership with a research team from a local university here.  There hardly exist any particular research on the effect of easy access to an increased volume of safe water for upland villages.

33 fulltime staff & 2 consultants

Most of the 33 regular staff of AIDFI come from the grassroots and have been selected based on skills, character/attitude and commitment rather than education.  In fact, right now, AIDFI has no university graduates.  Several did finish College in a field related to their functions in AIDFI, like finance, accounting, business, and marketing.  Many of the technicians were not able to finish technical education for financial reasons but became very skilled by practice.

AIDFI is owned by all regular staff and some affiliates who believe in the vision and mission of the organization.  They form the General Assembly (GA) which is held every year and with elections of a new  nine member Board of Trustees (BOT) every two years. Six out of the nine BOT come from the regular staff (and bring in actual knowledge and experiences) and three affiliates (who bring in their own expertise and a fresh neutral view). This turned out to be a very productive combination.  In this set up there is a high sense of ownership of the programs and the projects.  Most of the staff who come from the grassroots themselves can easily integrate with the beneficiaries and share this sense of ownership which we also try to create in the water associations.

The Team running the day-to-day programs consists of the CEO, COO and heads of Operations, Finance, HR & Admin and Sales & Marketing, all skilled and experienced in their own field.  Four out of the six Management Team members are women.

Positions open can be applied for by anybody who thinks that he or she can handle the job description and adhere to the vision, mission and goals and the shared values: Participatory, Democratic Initiatives, Integrity, Credibility, Consistency, Respect for Human Dignity and Rights, Teamwork, Accountability, Transparency, Innovation and Invention and Commitment Building.

AIDFI is a rather flat organization in which all staff and management have the opportunity to thrive.  There are technical staff who started working in the manufacturing and installation of ram pumps but who have worked themselves up to the technical services team which does surveys, technical study making, project guidance, monitoring and special projects.  In fact, all three Technical Service team members were former technicians.  We opted for this when we experienced that hired Engineers tend to look for greener pastures all the time.  Also, the approach of simplification of technologies and installations does not offer engineers enough challenges.

At the level of the technical staff there is a limitation in hiring females eventhough we encourage them or are open in hiring them.  AIDFI does get on the job trainees (OJT’s) from technical schools and among them female students, but they prefer to work abroad for higher salaries, which AIDFI cannot compete with.

For several reasons:

• Would be fantastic to become a Solver Team and enter the innovation ecosystem of MIT.
• To join the 9-month program to learn, get advices (through mentoring), meet like minded social entrepreneurs, media exposure, possible funding etc.
• To develop a partnership with one or more of the 165 Solve Members, for AIDFI to implement water projects from them (CSR, off setting of water and/or carbon footprint).

AIDFI is planning to start a complete new program in catering individual upland farmers of which most are considered poor. In the past we mainly catered groups (villages, farmers cooperatives or associations).  AIDFI sees the need to help upland farmers who are rain dependent in increasing their production as part of improving their sustainable farming.  Considering that in 2050 the food production need to be doubled, the upland farms can play an important role since irrigating their lands can easily increase production 3-4 times.  In the same time ram pump irrigation combined with farming techniques can make farming again attractive to young kids of the farmers.  This helps to ensure food production and lessen the migration to cities.  AIDFI knows that business wise this new program is rather on impact and job creation than profit making.  A very good strategy for this program need to be developed and it would be great to do this during a possible 9 months with the MIT program for Solvers Teams.

Another thing which needs to be looked into is the licensing of the trained teams from other countries after the Technology Transfer.  What kind of arrangement would be mutual and not a financial burden to the trained team.  Developing ideas around such a license would also be great to pick up in the 9 months with the MIT program.

We prefer to develop a list of potential partners with the organizers or mentors of the program if we make it.

AIDFI works in remote and far flung communities where mostly the upland villagers are engaged in subsistence rainfed farming.  The villages are isolated from many basic services and one of those is lack of easy access to water.  The communities are considered waterless.  This results in a minimal amount of water of around 40 liters/household/day and creating huge challenges especially for the women and kids. Eventhough AIDFI's intervention is to install water systems in which hydraulic ram pumps bring up water to their higher elevated villages in a much higher volume, it sees that after the intervention other forms of development are being triggered.  This is because AIDFI sets up, registers and trains water associations through which all being served by the systems become equal member.  Many of the officers are women and in some cases the majority are women. Also the associations are being introduced by AIDFI to the local government and agencies for future cooperation or development projects and we do see this happening. Also an old and disappearing system of cooperation, practiced in the villages in the past, is being revived for common activities.  The newly developed mechanical water kiosk (invention by AIDFI) is a prefect tool for the water association to become organizational and financial sustainable.  The money collected from the water kiosks spread out in the village are providing the necessary funds to operate (pay allowances to local village technicians), repair and maintain, expand the system or to initiate other forms of livelihood activities, mostly agriculture related.  Development is being triggered by the ram pump installations.

AIDFI would like to spend the USD 150,000.00 for the set up of some 200 water kiosks which is more or less good for 20 upland villages.  They will replace the previous installed public tapstands which caused unfair water distribution and a unstable monthly collection of water fees from the members.  The kiosk solves both problems as we already have seen in the pilot sites.

AIDFI works in remote and far flung communities where mostly the upland villagers are engaged in subsistence rainfed farming.  The villages are isolated from many basic services and one of those is lack of easy access to water.  The communities are considered waterless.  This results in a minimal amount of water of around 40 liters/household/day and creating huge challenges especially for the women and kids: they spent time or money from fetching water over elevations and distances, they endure back and head problems from the loads of water, lack water for bathing, sanitation, house cleaning, laundry and have no opportunity to grow vegetables and raise animals.  AIDFI installs hydraulic ram pump systems and brings the water automatically 24/7 in an average of ten times bigger volume near the doorsteps of the households and unburden the women.  With the provision of household water filters there are no more waterborne diseases, kids no longer skip classes for fetching, time of the women saved from fetching can be spent more productive, skin diseases caused by lack of bathing diminish, houses are cleaner, toilets are built and women no longer need to go out at night, laundry can be done near the houses, vegetables can be grown and animals raised around the houses.

AIDFI has developed a web based monitoring platform and the idea with Voda Phone would be to provide the water associations with a mobile phone with app and train them in forwarding important monthly data to AIDFI for pro-active distant monitoring.

AIDFI installs hydraulic ram pump systems in upland villages and farms, utilizing its own unique ram pump model, which do not use fuel or electricity and do not emit any Green House Gasses.

AIDFI considers the uplands as important production areas for the needed increase in food production.  In the low lands there is a huge competition for the use of lands.  In 2050 the food production needs to be doubled and the uplands still have a great potential for a fast increase: irrigation former rainfed dependent upland farms can tremendously help in this required increase.  The use of ram pumps rather than diesel or electricity operated irrigation pumps will produce irrigation water and the needed increase in food production without the use of CO2.

AIDFI has already installed ram pump systems in 580 upland communities and those avoid the emission of some 8000 ton of CO2 per year.

Besides previous waterless communities and upland farms, AIDFI is planning to focus also very much on developing bigger units ram pumps, which can totally replace diesel engine powered irrigation for the production of rice or other water intensive agriculture production in lower areas where streams and springs can be tapped.  This will save the farmers tremendous amounts for the usage of diesel as well as the transport of the diesel from the pumping station to their farms and the environment of harmful carbon emission.

AIDFI plans to use the prize money for developing bigger sizes and pilot them in rice fields.