Pump up Water, Pump up Africa
What we do
Uganda's water problem
Water is the most basic need of life, but for many Ugandans, it is difficult to access safe water.
Less than 70% of Ugandans can access safe water in rural Uganda.* For many still need to rely on ponds to get their living and drinking water like the one in the picture, and the rate hasn't improved in the last five years. In order to improve this situation, there is an urgent need to secure new water sources such as hand pumps, as well as construct and establish sustainable maintenance and management systems for existing hand pumps and other water sources. Efforts have also been made to improve the operation rate of hand pumps, the most widely used means of obtaining safe water in rural Uganda, but there has been no improvement over the past 10 years.
*source：Uganda Water and Environment Sector Performance Report 2020
It is difficult to construct continuous operation of hand-pumps.
The government has set the policy for the maintenance and management of hand-pumps, as to be carried out mainly by the residents, centering on the hand-pump management committee composed of several representatives of the residents, after the government installed hand-pumps. The hand-pump management committee collects the usage fees from each of the approximately 500 users and manages them as repair costs of the hand pump. However, there are many users who refuse to pay due to uncertainty about the safety of cash management and a sense of unfairness. Moreover, the collection becomes a physically and mentally demanding task for the committee members. In many cases, the hand pump fee collection is insufficient for repairs. Only a few villages with influential leaders who are trusted by some residents have become models for successful hand pump management.
Company's story
In order to establish continuous water charge collection and thus sustainable hand-pump operation, we have built an automated charge collection system that does not rely on "humans" as conventional hand-pump management. Switching payment and management method to mobile money improve the safety of money collection management. Charging according to the usage, increase fairness, and residents can now pay with peace of mind.
The word "Sunda" is the local language "Luganda" used in Central Uganda, meaning the word "Pump" in English. The phrase "Pump up Water, Pump up Africa" means "pump up water and fill the region with safe water" and "revitalize Africa" through our products and services and the process of providing them.
Mission
Building a system of independent villages that does not rely on external support.
We will create a financially independent village where villagers can receive the services they need when they need them without waiting for external support, thereby improving their quality of life. Even if we aim to build an independent village system, it is not easy to change the existing village and we also need to carefully monitor the process. By considering a process that can be expanded, we will realize “building an independent village” can be applied to many other villages.
Vision
Accomplish access to safe water for 700 million people in rural Sub-Saharan Africa
First of all, we target "water", which is the most important element of infrastructure for villages. We create an environment where residents can always obtain safe water by continuously maintaining water infrastructure. Therefore, it is necessary to build a mechanism for sustainable O&M (operation and maintenance) of community-shared water sources such as hand pumps. We will create a system that allows people to easily and continuously pay for water.
General Information
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