Play Pump

Another South African idea - There was a PBS story on this in  2005 and it seemed like a great idea to solve water problems in a sustainable way - and indeed also raise advertising revenue. 

A follow up report in 2010 shows subsequent scaling up problems.

Good idea, good intentions, lots of hype, lots of money, lots of celebrities and NGOs - so what went wrong?
3 responses
There was an implicit assumption that the supply of labor provided by playing children would always coincide with demand for water. Instead, children tend to play when they feel like it and get bored with new toys very quickly, while demand remains constant over long periods.

As an on-site evaluator noted:

Each time I’ve visited a Playpump, I’ve always found the same scene: a group of women and children struggling to spin it by hand so they can draw water. I’ve never found anyone playing on it. But, as soon as the foreigner with a camera comes out (aka me), kids get excited. And when they get excited, they start playing. Within 5 minutes, the thing looks like a crazy success."
...
I’ve always figured that as soon as I leave the excitement wears off and the pump reverts back to it’s normal state: being spun manually by women and kids."

Great photos here:
http://thoughtsfrommalawi.blogspot.com/2009/11/playpump-iii-challenge-of-taki...

More here:
http://aidwatchers.com/2010/02/some-ngos-can-adjust-to-failure-the-playpumps-...

Putting aside manufacturing scale concerns … do you think it would have worked at some locations? or was it a bum idea to begin with?

No Sir, I think the project's failure to take human behavior into account means it will have serious problems wherever it is set. Unless you can change children's desire to play to coincide with the periods when their mothers need water and find a way to keep them from growing bored with new toys, Playpump will continually fall short of its goals.