Resilient submersible pumps for community water supply in East Africa

该项目将针对可持续发展目标(SDGs)3和6，解决对用于饮用水供应的有弹性的地下水水泵的需求。发展中国家农村供水的传统方法是在有顶盖的钻孔或人工挖井中安装手泵。虽然手泵为数百万人带来了改善的水，但它们是劳动密集型、维护密集型的，并受到劳动力和零部件供应链不发达的影响。通常，它们没有得到维护，估计有四分之一的潜水器无法工作(Foster等人，2019年)。太阳能潜水器是越来越受欢迎的手动泵[RWSN]的替代品，但在多云条件下或由于淤泥/砂砾、过热和干燥运行导致的故障，它们无法满足要求。与潜水器不同的是，地面泵通过从地面吸入来提升水。它们比潜水器更便宜、更高效、寿命更长、更容易更换和维护，因为潜水器中的电机和滑动密封件必须潜入水下。然而，它们仅限于从约7米深的地方取水，占案例的10%(英国地质调查局，2011)。“冲击泵”是一种新型的“射程扩展器”，利用声学现象使地面泵能够在地下没有易发生故障的部位的情况下进入深层地下水。相关技术已经连续运行了一百多年。两年的小农灌溉田间试验表明，故障很少见，而且仅限于地面(驱动)泵，可以在两分钟内更换。手动或燃油驱动泵可以提供临时备用。冲击式水泵耐砂砾，对水位变化不敏感，可以长时间干燥运行而不会损坏；水位恢复时自吸。在这个项目中，我们将调查这些特性在农村供水服务中是否具有优势。我们将探索基于模板字段设计的一系列实现选项。这些措施将解决与不同地点相关的商业、社会、机构和环境背景的差异，共同的目标是确保在云层覆盖或水泵故障情况下供应的连续性。可行性阶段还将评估运行一个示范项目所需的伙伴关系以及设备和专业知识的当地供应链。热流体公司和FundiFix公司将在肯尼亚基图伊附近建立两个“面包板”设施。该项目将决定已经在农业中展示的维护效益是否可以转化为供水。如果成功，将在第二阶段推出示范，展示对全球农村水安全、商业和维护模式以及支撑其成本的巨大影响能力。

This project will address the need for a resilient groundwater pump for drinking water-supply, targeting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 3 & 6.The traditional approach to rural water provision in developing countries is to install handpumps in capped boreholes or hand-dug wells. Whilst handpumps have brought improved water to millions, they are labour intensive, maintenance intensive and suffer from under-developed supply chains of labour and parts. Often, they are not maintained and an estimated 1/4 of them don't work (Foster et al., 2019).Solar-powered submersibles are an increasingly popular alternative to handpumps [RWSN], but they fall short during cloudy conditions or due to failures caused by silt/grit, overheating and dry-running. Unlike submersibles, surface-pumps raise water by suction from ground level. They are cheaper, more efficient, longer lasting and easier to swap-out and maintain than submersibles, in which motors and sliding seals must be submerged. However, they are limited to drawing water from within ~7m depth, representing <10% of cases (BGS,2011).The "Impact Pump" is a novel "range extender" using acoustic phenomena to enable surface-pumps to access deep groundwater without fault-prone parts below ground. Related technologies have operated continuously for over a hundred years. Two years of field trials in smallholder irrigation have shown that failures are rare and constrained to the surface (drive)-pump, which can be swapped-out in under two minutes. Manual or fuel-driven drive-pumps can provide temporary backup. The Impact Pump is grit-tolerant, insensitive to water-level variations, and can run dry for extended periods without damage; self-priming when levels recover.In this project, we will investigate whether these attributes can be advantageous in rural water service delivery. We will explore a range of implementation options based around a template field design. These will address variations in the commercial, social, institutional and environmental context associated with different sites, with a common aim of ensuring continuity of supply in the events of cloud cover or pump failure. The feasibility phase will also assess partnerships required to run a demonstrator and local supply chains for equipment and expertise. Two "breadboard" installations will be established by Thermofluidics and FundiFix near Kitui, Kenya. The project will determine whether the maintenance benefits already demonstrated in agriculture, can translate to water supply. If successful, demonstrators will be rolled-out in phase 2, showing substantial capacity for impact on rural water security, business and maintenance models, and the costs underpinning it, across the globe.