[Gaviotas] Seesaw Pump in South Africa

[garybjones at verizon.net]

Hello David et al,
 
I scrounged up a couple of older papers on the pump as I am also facinated by it.  I have attached a couple of documents on the subject that I found.  Not really buildable plans and I hope you can translate Spanish, as one powerpoint presentation on the pump is in Spanish.  I would like to build these pumps here in the States.  I have been working in the solar hot water and solar electric industry for close to 30 years.  I have designed and installed many solar water pumps, along with other power systems for remote areas.  A simple pump like this sleeve pump would require very little power to run on solar.  But I have run out of luck finding any plans, or even purchasing the pumps from the Gaviotas office in Bogota, Columbia.  I will pass these along to you along with a couple of older pictures of a water pumping job we installed in 1992.  It is still running and has pumped tens of millions of gallons of water over that period of time.  The
 well goes down 360 feet.
 
Hope this helps and any help I can provide on solar design or suggesting the proper pumps to use, other than the sleeve pump, please feel free to ask.
 
Good Luck!
 
Gary B. Jones
 
PV&E


--- On Tue, 7/28/09, David Kulick <dakulick at gmail.com> wrote:


From: David Kulick <dakulick at gmail.com>
Subject: [Gaviotas] Seesaw Pump in South Africa
To: gaviotas at greenbuilder.com
Date: Tuesday, July 28, 2009, 3:46 AM


Hello,

My name is David Kulick and I am a Peace Corps volunteer in a small rural village in South Africa.  I recently read Alan Weisman's book on the Gaviotas community and was astounded by the seesaw pump.  My village, Matimpule, is lacking in most every resource including water access.  The municipality provides water from pipes though those fail to work for weeks at a time and people are either forced to use the one well in the village or buy water from carts that sell it at a high premium.  The village is quite large - about 6,000 people and putting in multiple pumps that can be easily used would be fantastic.  Because of a staggering HIV prevalence rate in the village of almost 40%, young children and old women take on most of the chores and tasks of daily living including fetching water.  My wife and I want to encourage people in the village to grow gardens for food access but with water so difficult to obtain during the dry season when the water
 ceases to run, poses a serious threat to any garden project.  If there were multiple water pumps that were easy to use, the possibility of growing would be much higher.  I think the seesaw pump if I understand it correctly would be a significant improvement in the community and would provide water while the children could play.

I am wondering if there are any building designs that I could be sent for the pump that was also described in the book.  I can do my part to apply for a grant to buy all the necessary parts but if there are specifics on what is needed and how to go about doing it, I would greatly appreciate it.  I am not sure if this is the best forum to post this question, so please direct me to the right contact.  Thank you.

Regards,
David Kulick
United States Peace Corps Volunteer
Community HIV/AIDS Outreach Project
South Africa
_______________________________________________
Gaviotas mailing list
Gaviotas at greenbuilder.com
http://greenbuilder.com/mailman/listinfo/gaviotas
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://greenbuilder.com/pipermail/gaviotas/attachments/20090728/0abed4ee/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Skinner Pump.jpg
Type: image/pjpeg
Size: 42286 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://greenbuilder.com/pipermail/gaviotas/attachments/20090728/0abed4ee/attachment.bin>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: skinner pump 2.jpg
Type: image/pjpeg
Size: 72876 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://greenbuilder.com/pipermail/gaviotas/attachments/20090728/0abed4ee/attachment-0001.bin>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Bomba de Camisa.ppt
Type: application/vnd.ms-powerpoint
Size: 9773568 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://greenbuilder.com/pipermail/gaviotas/attachments/20090728/0abed4ee/attachment.ppt>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Development means making people happy.doc
Type: application/msword
Size: 235520 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://greenbuilder.com/pipermail/gaviotas/attachments/20090728/0abed4ee/attachment.doc>