Hand pumps are pumps that people operate by hand. They use human power and tools to make it easier to move liquids or air from one place to another. They are used in many countries around the world for tasks like industry, boats, farming, and recreation. There are several types of hand pumps, which work using a piston, diaphragm, or rotating part. These pumps have valves that let fluid flow in one direction only. Most hand pumps are piston or plunger pumps, and they move a fixed amount of fluid each time they operate.

Hand pumps are often used in developing countries to provide water for communities and individuals. They can be placed in drilled wells or wells dug by hand.

History

A type of pump that was once widely used around the world was the hand-powered water pump, also known as the pitcher pump. These pumps were often placed over community water wells before modern water systems were available.

In some areas of Britain and Ireland, these pumps were called parish pumps. Although such pumps are not commonly used today, the term "parish pump" is still used to describe a place where people talk about local issues.

Water from pitcher pumps is drawn directly from the ground, which makes it more likely to become dirty. If this water is not cleaned properly, drinking it can cause illnesses such as stomach or intestinal diseases. A well-known example is the 1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak. At that time, people did not know how cholera spread, but a doctor named John Snow believed the water was contaminated. He removed the handle of a public pump he suspected was the source, and the outbreak stopped.

Today, hand-operated community pumps are considered the most cost-effective and long-lasting way to provide safe water in areas with limited resources, such as rural parts of developing countries. These pumps allow access to deeper groundwater, which is often cleaner, and they help protect water sources from contamination by keeping buckets away from the well. Pumps like the Afridev pump are designed to be easy to build, install, and repair using simple parts. However, in some regions of Africa, the lack of spare parts for these pumps has made them less useful.

Types

Suction and lift are important when moving liquids using pumps. Suction is the distance from the water source to the center of the pump, while lift is the distance from the pump to where the water is delivered. Hand pumps can only pull water from a depth of less than 7 meters because of air pressure. The height to which a hand pump can push water depends on the pump's strength and the person using it. A smaller pipe allows a pump to push water higher than a larger pipe.

Hand-powered suction pumps are used to draw water from shallow sources. A different type of hand pump, called a deluge pump, was created in the late 1800s. It was used on small ships and construction sites. A company named Goulds Manufacturing Co. produced this pump from the 1880s until the early 1900s.

If water needs to be lifted higher than 7 meters or pushed with strong pressure, like through a fire hose, a force pump may be used. Like suction pumps, force pumps require a person to move a handle. However, after water is drawn up through a valve, it exits through a pipe or nozzle on the side of the pump. When the handle is pushed down, the water is pushed out.

A siphon is a curved tube with one end in the water to be moved and the other in a lower container. Water flows from the higher container to the lower one because of gravity. Simple pumps with plastic or rubber bulbs and valves are used to empty fuel or water cans into tanks. Once the bulb is filled, water flows on its own. Some hand pumps allow water to flow through them easily, and diaphragm pumps are especially good at this. This makes it simple to move large amounts of water, like from swimming pools, without using much energy.

A chain pump uses a loop of chain with attached discs to move water. The chain moves through gears, and as it goes up, the discs carry water out of a tube. These pumps were used on ships in the 1700s. They work by continuously moving a chain with buckets that lift water.

Direct action hand pumps use a rod moved up and down by a person to push water. They are simple to install and fix but can only lift water up to 15 meters. Examples include the canzee pump and the EMAS pump.

Deep well hand pumps are used to lift water more than 15 meters. Because the weight of the water is too heavy to lift directly, these pumps use tools like levers or wheels to help. These pumps are stronger and harder to install and repair. In theory, they can lift water from any depth, but in practice, they are limited to about 30 meters because of human strength.

Diaphragm pumps are light and do not use rods, making them resistant to rust. However, they require special tubes and expensive rubber parts that wear out and need replacing. This makes them hard to maintain in rural areas.

Progressive cavity pumps use a special rotor and stator design. As the rotor turns, water moves upward through the pump. These pumps have complex parts that are hard to repair. A rope and washer pump is a type of progressive cavity pump.

The different lifting abilities of hand pumps are listed below.

Hand pumps and access to clean water

In November 2002, the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights stated that access to clean, safe water is not just a product that can be bought and sold. The committee emphasized that everyone has a basic right to enough clean water for daily use, such as drinking, cooking, and washing. "The human right to water is essential for living with dignity." Because of this, companies that make water pumps, like GOAZ Development in Malaysia, have many possible buyers, including governments, groups that help communities, women’s organizations, and other groups interested in improving access to groundwater.

VLOM, which stands for Village Level Operation and Maintenance, was first used during a project by the UNDP and World Bank from 1981 to 1991. This project studied how to provide and maintain hand pumps for water. Researchers tested 40 types of hand pumps in labs and examined the performance of 2,700 hand pumps in the field. The study found that having a central group handle repairs caused many problems, and that letting villages manage repairs themselves was better.

The VLOM idea originally focused on making hand pumps easy to fix with parts made locally, ensuring spare parts were available, and keeping costs low. Over time, more attention was given to how repairs were managed. This led to the "M" in VLOM standing for "management of maintenance." Now, the concept includes letting communities choose who repairs the pumps, who pays for repairs, and ensuring communities are responsible for pump care.

The Swiss Centre for Resource Centre and Consultancies for Development, called Skat, continues to help design and support hand pump projects as the host of the Rural Water Supply Network (RWSN).

An example of a project that highlights challenges with hand pumps is the 1992 Mali Rural Supply Project. This project provided safe water to about 230 villages facing drought and 228,000 people. It aimed to let villages take responsibility for pump repairs. However, the complexity of the pumps and their durability under heavy use were major issues. A 1994 study showed that only 41 to 51 percent of hand pumps in Africa were still working. The Mali project improved pump longevity by creating local storage for spare parts, training people to repair pumps, scheduling regular checks, forming local committees, and recruiting volunteers.

Hand pumps are often preferred over older methods, like using a bucket and rope system, because they reduce water contamination. Bucket and rope systems cannot use cover slabs to protect groundwater from pollution, and unwashed hands can make the bucket dirty. Hand pumps avoid these problems. However, during the Mali project, many villagers still used shallow water sources when rain made them available, even though these sources were easier to reach than hand pumps.

Other challenges included animal waste and mixing of groundwater with surface water, which hurt sanitation. Pumps also provided only 20 liters of water per person per day, which required villagers to collect water in a way that was not realistic. Some local depots stopped supporting the project when donated supplies ran out, and maintenance was not kept up. A 2008 World Bank study found that 45 percent of rural water projects in India focused on fixing broken pumps instead of regular maintenance, and 20 percent were in serious disrepair.

Whether hand pumps are an affordable option depends on who pays for them. For example, a 1992 aid project in Ethiopia imported 165 Afridevs hand pumps from India. Each pump cost about $700, including shipping and installation, and served about 55 households. At the time, Ethiopia’s average income per person was $120. A hand pump designed by researchers at the University of Waterloo and refined at the University of Malaya uses locally available materials, like rope covered in chicken fat or leather belts, for repairs. GOAZ Development sells these pumps for $160 to $300. This means a family would pay 11 percent of their annual income for clean water, which is more than twice the 5 percent the World Bank says is the maximum a family should pay.

Gallery

• A hand pump located in village Bado, near Shikarpur Sindh, Pakistan.
• A hand-operated pump that moves water using a back-and-forth motion, found in Košice-Ťahanovce, Slovakia (known as a walking beam pump).
• A child drawing water from a hand pump in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA, in 1939.
• The only water source for this area of Wilder, Tennessee, USA, in 1942.
• A hand pump built in 1904 that remained in use in La Russell, Missouri, USA, in 2010, located on Main Street.
• A covered village pump in Thorpe Abbots, Norfolk, England.
• A hand pump used during the rebuilding of Germany after World War II.
• A hand-operated water pump in Berlin, Germany.
• A hand pump used in a rural area of Liberia.
• A hand pump located in Bruges, Belgium.
• A hand pump in Raahe, Finland.
• A hand pump in Leipzig, Germany.
• An old hand pump from around 1924 at the Colored School in Alapaha, Georgia, US; typical of the time and region.
• A hand pump at Ebenezer, Georgia, USA.
• An India Mark II hand pump in Bohardih, near Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, India.
• An old hand pump in Burj Bhalaike, Punjab, India.