Elevated hand pump installed with reservoir to supply water taps in Ethiopian schools

In rural areas around the world many communities and schools rely upon shallow (hand dug) and deep boreholes fitted with hand pumps for their daily water supply. For schools and other institutions where hundreds of children, teachers and staff rely on often only one water point for drinking, hand washing and cleaning this poses many challenges. Queues decrease students’ daily consumption of water and time in the classroom, hand washing is difficult to practice and bathing stalls often go unused. In 2006 one of WaterCan’s Ethiopian partners Rural Community Water Development Organization (COWDO) developed a new and innovate design for hand dug and borehole water systems to address the specific water and sanitation needs of primary students in Ethiopia. Using an elevated hand pump and attaching a 250-500 litre water storage tank COWDO has addressed the challenges above, and is now a resource for others wishing to use similar designs.