How can I donate a well of water pump?
We regularly receive questions such as: Can I donate a water well or water pump? That is understandable because these are very tangible things to do if you want to contribute to clean drinking water in developing countries. Unfortunately, it is less simple than you think and a well is not always the best solution.
Water well or pump
First, let’s make it clear that a well and a water pump are not the same thing. A well is often used as a term for a water pump, while the well is not much more than a deep hole in the ground from which you can get water. The water then comes from shallow layers in the ground and is susceptible to pollution and drought.
A water pump for drinking water also extracts the water from the ground, but with a pump. This can be an old-fashioned hand pump, but also a pump that works on electricity or diesel.
A hand pump is only suitable for pumping water from shallow layers, while a powered pump can also extract water from much deeper layers. This has the advantage that the water supply is not susceptible to drought and can run out less quickly. However, electricity or diesel must be available.
Other solutions
There are many more solutions to provide people with clean drinking water than a water pump or well. For example, water is often available, but that water is polluted. Filtration can then be a solution.
Donating a well or a water pump will also only work if there is water in the ground and that depends entirely on the geological conditions.
In other cases, you may want to work with pipelines from a relatively nearby river or drain upstream of a – not yet – polluted river.
It also strongly depends on the location whether a central pump is suitable or whether it is better to work with a water supply at household level.
Tangible contributions
If you want to support people with clean drinking water, we understand very well that you want to make a tangible contribution of which you can see the results. That is possible!
At Made Blue you always donate in the form of litres of clean drinking water. We can guarantee that these will be available and will also let you know how many people you will help, how much CO2 emissions you will save and how much plastic you will avoid, for example.
You can also choose which project you would like to support. For example, per project we can make it very tangible that with a certain amount you can provide an entire school with water or that you can build a complete mini water network.
Clean drinking water for all
More than 700 million people still don’t have access to safe water.
We are the Made Blue Foundation and our mission is clean drinking water for all.
Will you help us achieve our mission? There are more ways to do this than you might think.
Water and hygiene
Giving people access to clean drinking water goes much further than just technology. Clean water won’t stay clean if you don’t handle it hygienically.
That is why we also take plenty of time for training and information in all our projects, and that starts with the little ones. It is often the children who manage to convince their parents of the usefulness of washing hands, for example.
In most areas where we work, people don’t have toilets yet. That is why we often combine water supplies with the construction of toilets.
All in all, we not only take care of water, but also hygiene, which prevents many diseases and child deaths.
Restoring water pumps
Unfortunately, we also often see well-intentioned water pumps that have been donated in the past no longer work. That’s a shame!
We prevent this in our projects by involving the local population in the water supply from the start and making them responsible for it. In addition, a small contribution is often paid for the water so that money can be saved for maintenance and repairs.
Sometimes we also choose to restore old water pumps in our projects because that is the fastest way to provide people with clean drinking water.
Contribute to our mission too
You can do so in more ways than you might think.
