A water pump for the people

Inventor Martin Fisher designs easy irrigation tools for African farmers.

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Today’s push for “appropriate technology” has its roots in the 1970s oil crisis and a 1973 essay collection by British economist E.F. Schumacher, “Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered.”

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Some early adherents, like the now-defunct New Alchemy Institute, designed labor-intensive tools that saved resources to reduce environmental impact, but lacked a sustainable way to fund and distribute the technology.

Now, small-scale, human-centered designs appear to be gaining traction among development groups and high-tech companies attempting to distribute “appropriate” mobile devices that are ergonomic, accessible, and worth hard-earned money.

International Development Enterprises (IDE) has also designed treadle irrigation pumps, many of which were distributed in Bangladesh.

The importance of irrigation
Fisher says an irrigation tool holds the most potential to lift a family out of poverty, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, where the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that only 5 percent of land is irrigated, compared with 30 percent to 40 percent of Asia.

These KickStart microirrigation pumps draw from groundwater, which could be depleted with a high concentration of pumps but are less damaging to the environment than flood or channel irrigation.

“Nobody’s going to look after the environment if they can’t take care of their kids,” Fisher says. “They’re going to do whatever they can do to survive.”

Because the pumps aren’t powered by electricity or cheap fuel, “It has a built in disincentive to overuse,” says Casey Brown, an assistant research scientist at Columbia University’s International Research Institute for Climate and Society in Palisades, New York. “The potential seems to outweigh the risks.”

At a recent conference in Cambridge, Fisher's work earned him the $100,000 Lemelson MIT Award for Sustainability. He says he hopes to use the funds to refocus his efforts back in the lab, developing more efficient pumps and rapidly creating additional prototypes.