WaterWired

Martin Fisher's Irrigation Pump For The People

Today is WaterWired's "Hydrophilanthropy Day".

Peter Smith of the Christian Science Monitor recently (23 July 2008) reported on aid worker/inventor/social entrepreneur Martin Fisher, who has invented inexpensive irrigation pumps for use in developing regions.His pumps have helped farmers improve production and earn more money.

Fisher views the poor not as victims, but as entrepreneurs. What a novel concept! 

I am intrigued by this; I've seen a number of human-powered pumps but were generally ones used to provide drinking water. Since my work in developing countries has dealt mainly with potable water, I've never really looked for "low-tech" irrigation pumps.

Smith writes:

As an aid worker in Africa, Martin Fisher says he saw a twofold problem: A lack of irrigation made it difficult for impoverished rural farmers to make money, and the irrigation pumps provided by many foreign aid programs lay broken and unused.

“All too often we do more harm than good,” says Mr. Fisher. “I realized that when it comes down to it, a poor person has only one need: A way to make more money.”

Fisher, an aluminum expert by training, has developed a series of low-cost, manual water pumps that can be used to irrigate farms up to two acres in size. In turn, farmers can increase their yields and grow produce for market.

“It’s providing a tool. If that’s all it was that would be good,” says Erik Hersman, a South African expat who blogs about ingenuity on the continent at Afrigadget.com. “But what Martin Fisher’s doing is he’s encouraging people to start a business – to be entrepreneurs.”

Sometimes, Mr. Hersman says, these tools and the money they create spur additional innovation and spin-off businesses, like pumping services.

Fisher, who has a doctorate in theoretical and applied mechanics, is the 2008 winner of the Lemelson-MIT Award for Sustainability.

See this video about Fisher, demonstrating his pump. He and Nick Moon formed the nonprofit KickStart, which developed tools and other devices for Kenyans so that they could set up their own enterprises. KickStart then developed the MoneyMaker pumps. The group now has offices in Kenya, Tanzania, and Mali. It has 225 employees, all but six of whom grew up near the KickStart office where they work.

The CSM story adds:

The pumps cost as little as $100, which Fisher says is the true market price, not subsidized by his group.

“We don’t give anybody anything,” he says. “It’s technology and the power of marketplace that can take people out of poverty. It’s really about the power of design and technology.”

I have a colleague who swears the world's water and related problems will be solved solely by big organizations. He's wrong; it'll be people like Martin Fisher and those he helps who will be doing the heavy lifting.

“The pessimist always finds difficulty in opportunity and the optimist always finds opportunity in difficulty.” -- Anonymous

Well-Drilling Missionary Freed in Chad

Just so we don't lull ourselves into thinking that doing hydrophilanthropic work is not without danger, here is a piece from the Boston Globe about the release of missionary Steven Godbold, 49, who was working with The Evangelical Alliance Mission (TEAM) based in Wheaton, IL.

Godbold has served in Chad since 1991. He was captured on 10 October 2007 in Zoumri in the Tibesti region of northern Chad by the rebel group Movement for Democracy and Justice in Tchad (MDJT). Godbold was assisitng a Chadian NGO transport water well-drilling equipment into the Tibesti region to provide potable water to the residents. The project was being funded by the U.S. Department of Defense.

TEAM issued a statement on 24 July 2008.

Thanks to Kevin McCray, Executive Director of NGWA, who sent me this information.

"For a wide door for effective service has opened to me, and there are many adversaries." -- 1 Corinthians 16:9 (New American Standard Bible) 

WGA, WSWC, and CDWR Sponsor Climate Change Workshop

The Western Governors' Association, the Western States Water Council,   and the California Department of Water Resources will jointly sponsor a climate change workshop in Irvine, CA, 24-26 September 2008.

Download final_september_08_cc_workshop.doc

From the attached flyer:

The focus of the workshop is on tools for adaptation to climate change and variability, including beginning development of a set of tools that states could use as a standard of practice for climate change adaptation.  Specific topics covered in the workshop will include improvements in weather/climate prediction, revised hydrologic design criteria, modification of reservoir flood  control rule curves, and risk management techniques.  As state and local government entities, as well as private businesses, increasingly explore ways to prepare and adapt to future climate changes, guidelines specific to the water industry are lacking.  State water management agencies are uniquely positioned to take a leadership role in establishing such guidance. 

The workshop is one aspect of implementing the recommendations in the WGA's June 2006 report, Water Strategies for a Sustainable Future and June 2008 Next Steps report. The latter notes that the "undefined and undefinable climate and other variables mean continuing uncertainty and highlight the necessity of taking incremental steps and the need for adaptive management approaches." 

"Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company." -- Mark Twain

T. Boone Pickens Rides Again

T. Boone Pickens, whose visage graced these pages just last month, is again featured with his water- for-sale-cum-wind-power road show, this time in Popular Mechanics. You just can't escape the man!

The PM article is written by Michael Milstein of The Oregonian and features some truly profound, insightful words by yours truly.

I applaud Pickens for embracing wind energy (no jokes about 'hot air', please).

His water scheme will eventually pay off, but as I said, it'll take longer than he thinks. How about his energy plan? See for yourself - read more about Pickens' energy plan.

Maybe Boone should serve on the National Water Commission. Heck, he could foot the bill!

"Cost becomes irrelevant." -- T. Boone Pickens, referring to cities looking at their future water needs

USA Water Resources: Time For A Little Less Talk And A Lot More Action?

Nothing like initiating a post with a title from a song in Toby Keith's repertoire (or from Sarah Bates' original post).  It's all uphill from here, just like water flowing to money and power.

In a post a few weeks ago entitled How We Can Save Our Country's Water, the ever-thoughtful Sarah Bates declared that the time for more commissions  and studies is over:

But the question remains. Do we need a new commission to revisit these questions? Or do we need to look more seriously at how we might mobilize the political will to implement the remarkably consistent menu of ideas that has already emerged from such gatherings of water experts over the past several decades? [To see this "remarkably consistent menu of ideas" see the Appendix of the recent report A New Western Water Agenda. It's a revelation.] 

She does have a point: been there, done that. No argument from me.  

Sarah's comments reminded me of something I had forgotten - that the long-completed 1973 report of the National Water Commission could essentially be reissued, if it were updated with a chapter or two on climate change (see Jan Neuman's comments in Sarah's post). I first realized this several years ago, when my then-University of New Mexico colleague David Brookshire decided to clean his office and unearthed a copy of the report, on which he had toiled as a graduate student. We both stared in the amazement at the table of contents, which could have been lifted from something more recent, save for some mention of climate change and water resources.

So if I think Sarah has a point - that it is time to act - why do I still think we need a National Water Commission? Why not just update the 1973 report? Several reasons:

1. the landscapes (demographic, political, water resources,etc.) have changed and the stakes are higher since 1973;
2. climate change and its effect on water resources now loom ominously on the horizon;
3. the public and Congressional consciousness about water has been raised quite a bit, with far more people concerned about their "water future" than in 1973;
4. a commission created by Congress will add additional gravitas to the issue and its recommendations will be more difficult to ignore than those from a self-appointed panel of experts;
5. a commission may spur parties (states, regional consortia, agencies, etc.) into action because of the threat of Federal hegemony (analogous to the threat of litigation that brings warring parties to the negotiating table); and lastly,
6. when a conservative Republican Congressman from a "red" state - Rep. John Linder (R-GA) - is leading the charge for a National Water Commission, that tells me something (see #3 above): it's time. 

The above items don't mean that the 1973 report should be ignored. It should be the first thing the new Commission reads.

If a Commission is created, that does not mean we should rest on our laurels (or levees), fully expecting Congress to solve everything (do I look that stupid?). We need to keep working to solve problems.

And, if a National Water Commission makes reasonable recommendations that Congress disregards or permits to become ensnarled in the morass of partisan poiltics, I think you'll see such a hue and cry from the water professionals, stakeholders, and general public even Congress cannot ignore.

But maybe we'll need Toby Keith to kick some butt.

"We learn nothing from history except that we learn nothing from history." -- Cicero