Roundabout PlayPump

The Roundabout PlayPump is a system that uses the energy created by children playing to operate a water pump. It is manufactured by the South African company Roundabout Outdoor. It operates in a similar way to a windmill-driven water pump.

The PlayPump received heavy publicity and funding when first introduced, but has since been criticized for being too expensive, too complex to maintain or repair in low-resource settings, too reliant on child labor, and overall less effective than traditional handpumps. WaterAid, one of the biggest water charities in the world, opposes the PlayPump for these reasons.

The PlayPump water system is a playground merry-go-round attached to a water pump. The spinning motion pumps underground water into a 2,500-liter tank raised seven meters above ground. The water in the tank is easily dispensed by a tap valve. According to the manufacturer the pump can raise up to 1400 liters of water per hour from a depth of 40 meters. Excess water is diverted below ground again.

The storage tank has a four-sided advertising panel. Two sides are used to advertise products, thereby providing money for maintenance of the pump, and the other two sides are devoted to public health messages about topics like HIV/AIDS prevention.

The PlayPump was invented in South Africa by Ronnie Stuiver, a borehole driller and engineer, who exhibited it at an agricultural fair in 1989. Trevor Field, an agricultural executive, saw the device at the fair and licensed it from Stuiver. Fields installed the first two systems in KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa in 1994, and began receiving media attention in 1999, when Nelson Mandela attended the opening of a school which had a PlayPump. In 2000, PlayPump received the World Bank Development Marketplace Award, and it became internationally prominent following a 2005 PBS Frontline report in 2005. At a 2006 Clinton Global Initiative ceremony, donors pledged $16.4 million to install more PlayPumps.

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