Wind pumping based water supply schemes for remote villages in Sri Lanka

In the remote rural villages in Hambantota district (located in South-East of Sri Lanka) there is no easy access to potable water, and conventional community water supply schemes by pumping water from deep wells is far from the reality. Present study investigates the feasibility of community water supply schemes for sparsely distributed houses in these villages by the installation of a wind rotor coupled to a hand operated deep well pump at a favourable location in the village and storing of water in a tank at a higher elevation. Based on field measurements of wind data, power requirement for hand pump installed in a deep well, the scale model testing of two horizontal axis wind rotors and the performance of a pilot wind pump, potential for introducing wind pumping based community water supply schemes in the district is emphasized.