Ram vs. Cycle Pump: Designing a Sustainable Water Pump for Use in the Berekuso Township

Abstract

The world's poor rural population (900 million people) lacks access to safe drinking water and sanitation, resulting in enormous human health and economic costs, as well as gender and other societal disparities. Rural water and sanitation assistance is more difficult to provide due to the settlements' location, which is mostly in environmentally sensitive areas: dispersed settlements, an agrarian economy, and complicated infrastructure. Rural populations lack access to appropriate, lowcost, and locally manufactured technologies for water, sanitation, and hygiene. Modern, urban-oriented technologies will not be suitable in a rural setting. Other factors in technology should be considered, such as energy efficiency and the use of dependable and low-cost water transportation systems. In this project, a sustainable water pump is designed and implemented for a local town [Berekuso], in Ghana. Two distinct pump designs are proposed and compared, the ram and bike pump. The ultimate goal of this design project is to scale up the prototype for easy water transportation in a town. The product should be portable and easy to assemble – these will be tested using software simulations [Fusion 360 and SolidWorks] as well as reading physical measurements, using instruments.