Looking Ahead: Pump Aid’s Vision for 2025

In 2024, Pump Aid made significant strides towards our mission of ending water poverty in Malawi by 2030, see our 2023/24 Impact Report. Thanks to your generous support, we have served 233,948 people with Malawi’s first professionalised repair and maintenance service, transforming waterpoint functionality from 60% to 99% and ensuring better health, gender equality and climate resilient livelihoods for disadvantaged rural populations. With over 40% of community water points being non-functional and 82% of the population living rurally and relying on off-grid water infrastructure for their daily needs, our work is imperative to bring safe water access to rural Malawian communities. We are excited to look forward to 2025, with your continued support we know we can go even further. 

This blog post further explores our work and outlines our intentions for the year ahead. 

Objectives for 2025

• Grow Beyond Water’s business to reach approximately 449,900 people in 1,100 rural communities 

• Maintain waterpoint functionality above 99% for our customers 

• Repair 440 nonfunctional waterpoints, restoring safe water access to 40,082 people 

• Maintain gender equality improvements by reducing the amount of time spent by women and girls collecting water, providing more time for education and productive output 

• Increasing water security of rural villages in the face of climate change by providing support to adopt climate adaptation measures that protect groundwater supply 

Beyond Water

A primary focus this year will be expanding the reach of our social enterprise, Beyond Water. Beyond Water provides affordable services and products that communities can rely on, fostering ownership and long-term sustainability. Through our professionalised repair and maintenance (PRM) services, we repair non-functional community water pumps and maintain them through quarterly maintenance visits. With our Repair, Maintain, Sustain model, Beyond Water has secured a 99.7% functionality rate of the waterpoints we manage. In 2025, we will work towards our Beyond Water’s ambition of having our PRM services in at least 10 districts of Malawi by 2026 and nationwide presence by 2030. 

Sustainable Development

A key theme for our work in 2025 is sustainable development. Pump Aid puts long-term sustainability at the centre of all our work, particularly SDG 6 which aims to achieve clean water and sanitation for all. We prioritise the climate resilience of waterpoints through our locally led, scalable interventions. Beyond Water utilises a financial approach that improves income flows through affordable user contributions, government funds and performance-based payments, ensuring our long-term sustainability. With a focus on climate resilience and financial viability, we secure Malawian communities with reliable access to safe water access far beyond the point of initial interventions.  

Social Sustainability

Social sustainability is also a critical component of our work. Through providing safe water access to disadvantaged rural communities in Malawi, we are able to improve gender, health, and economic outcomes. Pump Aid places significant focus on promoting gender equality. Women and girls are disproportionately burdened by the negative impacts of poor water access due to their role in fetching water. Malawian women and girls walk up to 6km daily to reach a functional waterpoint. The physical and mental burden of water-related tasks negatively impact women and girls’ education, health, and economic outcomes, further strengthening gender inequality.

Pump Aid strives to mitigate the associated risks that come with water fetching by providing rural communities with reliable safe water access that is convenient. A functioning local waterpoint allows for women and girls to devote their time to other opportunities, like attending school or working. Beyond removing the obstacles associated with fetching water, Pump Aid supports women empowerment through supporting female Area Mechanics, supplying them with support and training to expand their livelihood opportunities. We currently have 9 female AMs working with Beyond Water and in the New Year, we aim to increase the number of women establishing small-scale PRM businesses.  

Support safe water access in Malawi by making a donation to Pump Aid.