Development Ratings

Two companies, Aquaid (water cooler supply) and Thirsty Planet (bottled water) each contribute a donation to Pump Aid for every unit of their water sales. The charity has exclusive contracts with both companies that run until 2012 and 2015 respectively. Their donations are restricted to funding only the materials for pump construction. This means that matching funds are required to release these funds in order to fully complete the proposed five year water and sanitation programme. Sales could be affected by the economic crisis, however.

There are plans for a training centre to train other NGO staff in the technology and policy approach. This will be a commercial venture within Pump Aid but funding is proving slow to negotiate. The trained NGOs will be able to expand their own programmes into new areas, such as Zambia and Ghana, and be certified to train future staff. Pump Aid has received invitations from several countries to introduce the programme, technology and approach, and the training centre is part of the plan to replicate the programme in new countries.

Pump Aid aims to hire a Regional Director to supervise the field operations. This would free up Ian Thorpe to continue his profile raising and advocacy work, with the aim of influencing international policy related to water and sanitation. This particularly relates to the concept of combining the supply of water for both domestic and micro-irrigation uses, so as to address health and food reliability issues together. Ian chairs and presents at conferences and also advises major development organisations on policy and approach. The charity finds that funding for sanitation work is less popular than funding for water programmes. This is an area where it is looking to develop greater donor interest. In addition, it is looking to fund the development of its monitoring and evaluation work to be able to increase the measurability, depth and range of its impact.