Our Work Archives

Minister of Agriculture promotes our irrigation pumps for farmers and First Lady supports Pump Aid innovations

July and August have been busy months for Pump Aid and Beyond Water in Malawi. In addition to carrying out our work to increase access to reliable and convenient water, the Malawi team have been working with key figures in the Malawian government, focussing on the two key elements of our innovative social enterprise approach: community pump repair and maintenance service, and low cost pump sales. Last week, the Malawi team hosted Honourable Lobin Lowe MP, the Minister of Agriculture & Irrigation, for a visit to see some of our irrigation pumps in action and to witness first-hand the transformative […]

Pump Aid’s impact in 2021

2020 was a year like no other but, despite the challenges that COVID-19 inflicted on the world, Pump Aid continued to deliver its award-winning work and provided hundreds of thousands of people in rural Malawi with life-changing access to clean, safe water and gave them and their communities the opportunity to thrive. We supported our network of independent pump mechanics businesses to repair and maintain over 900 community water points, provided over 1,000 households with the opportunity to invest in their own convenient water pumps and gave over 2,000 farmers the chance to access year-round irrigation. Read more about our […]

Opinion Our Work

2020: A year of fundamental lessons for aid and NGOs?

2020 has been a challenging year for us all and, while nothing can make up for the devastating impact for so many, one of the positive consequences has been how it has forced us to rethink how we deliver our objectives. Pump Aid is committed to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and the total eradication of water poverty by 2030, and in order to achieve this, we need to address the high rate of pump non-functionality in Sub-Saharan Africa. In 2020, the arrival of COVID-19 made some of Pump Aid’s work impossible to deliver, so we pivoted activities and used […]

Our Work Partnership

Beyond Water: Innovate UK supports pioneering approach to household and irrigation water supplies in rural Malawi

Beyond Water is thrilled to be working in partnership with Challenges Group and insider outsider design consultancy and with funding from Innovate UK’s Global Challenge Research Fund, to deepen our understanding of Beyond Water customers and the markets for household and irrigation pumps in rural Malawi. Beyond Water is unique in Malawi in that it aims to develop markets and financial profitability for low cost water products and services in poor rural communities, as a means to improving health and food security. The aim of the work supported by Innovate UK is to help Beyond Water scale up its market […]

Our Work Project

Reflections from a supporter’s Pump Aid visit to Malawi

Having supported Pump Aid for several years it was a privilege in March 2020, on the back of a family trip to Malawi, to see for myself some of the work they have been doing. Hosted by Chikondi, Arlington, and Hendie we fitted a lot into our 2 day visit in the Mchinji District to the west of Malawi, on the Zambian border. Here we were away from the more touristic spots that we had already visited. So by this time we were starting to know a little about Malawi. We had experienced a warm welcome, seen some wonderful scenery […]

Our Work Project

COVID-19 Update

The first cases of COVID-19 were announced in Malawi on the 2nd April. The Government has made efforts to prepare the country by suspending gatherings of more than 100 people, closing primary and secondary schools and seeking to train health workers in how to deal with the virus. However, Malawi has a very weak health infrastructure, a severe shortage of medical resources for treatment and only 27 ICU beds for a population of 18 million. So the current focus is on prevention: the promotion of good hygiene, handwashing and social distancing. In addition to government efforts NGOs such as Pump […]

Charity News Our Work

Our Impact in 2019

In 2019 we continued to empower people in rural Malawi to thrive. We helped children to flourish with increased life chances, entrepreneurs to develop profitable small businesses and households, farmers and communities to gain convenient access to reliable sources of water. • Generating livelihoods, resilience and opportunities • Improving sustainable access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene • Encouraging independence and self-reliance • Ending aid dependency for good In this 2019 Impact Summary, we show the huge impact of our work providing opportunities for children, communities and entrepreneurs in Malawi to have access to water and sanitation, lift themselves […]

Our Work

The Elephant Pump

The same Elephant Pump that launched our work in 1998, continues to be a core part of our rural water supply project at Pump Aid today. Our trusty Elephant Pump is based on a traditional rope and washer pump which was first used in China 2,000 years ago. This pump is ideal for the small and remote villages we work in which are excluded from larger projects due to their small size. The Elephant Pump is cheap to build, easy to install and uses local materials. How does the Elephant Pump work? The Elephant Pump sits above a well, which […]