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Trevor Field is an entrepreneur. He had an idea to invent something simple that can be effortless and be useful at the same time (his previous company was an advertisement company). Now, enter inventing company merging with Mr. Field's brilliant mind. And you have a device that does, in my mind, at least three things at the same time.
PlayPump - think back to your playground days where a simple plaything that spun around which was powered by other kids, pushing, running and going round and round... That's what got Mr. Field's idea. The untapped and harnessing the free energy generated by kids playing. This PlayPump looks like an ordinary playground equipment. But every time it is turned, it cranks a manual motor that pumps fresh water from the ground up to the water tower. And the water tower than can use the gravity to send water to far distance or just simply act as a reservoir.
How PlayPump Works
Manual pump is very tough to work and it takes long time to pump anything from the ground. Manual pump is operated by hand, much similar to how you pedal a bicycle. We take it for granted how fresh water is delivered to us in advanced world, but in much of Africa fresh water is as precious as gold sometimes. There are water reservoirs under the ground but drawing it to the surface takes money, i.e. electricity to run powered motor to draw it out. We sometimes can't imagine places without electricity but it is very common in the 3rd world counties.
This PlayPump not only provides easier means to turn the motor but it also provides local and village kids something to do for fun. As kids play, as they often do, it turns motor whether they know it or not. Mr. Field's design then allows drawn water to be rushed up to the water tower and store for later usage. This means far away dwellers do not have to travel by walking 40~60 minutes and pump for another 40 minutes to fill a 5 pound bucket to carry it back. They may have to walk close to 2 hours of journey but they no longer have to labor over getting fresh water--they simply turn the faucet to fill their buckets. I suppose the next logical step is to lay down pipes to go closer to near by villages. The gravity would easily create needed pressure to deliver water to certain distance without any power or motor necessary.
So why not have these PlayPumps in every village? The cost to produce one PlayPump is nearly $7,000 USD. It is costly. But each PlayPump can gather 400 gallons per hour when effortlessly played by kids. The current manual pump can only do 20~40 gallons per hour.
The PlayPump's detail can be found at this site http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/rough/20..._africa_th.html
The inventor's website http://www.playpumps.org/
