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How much does solar water pumping cost?

Neil Noble
Energy
related country: Kenya
KnowledgePointAdmin
RedR CCDRR
related country: Kenya

Hi, We read about your project to provide water pumps for the Turkana people in Kenya a couple of years ago when my daughter started school. She decided that she would like to help people who don't have clean water to drink and started collecting some coins in a jar hoping that by the time she finishes primary school she can buy a pump to help.

The fundraising has been going well for the last 2 years and we're wondering if you could provide some details about the costs of pumps for this project. We've read about the solar pumps but guess these may be more expensive, we currently have about £250 but it would be nice to report to those who've donated to our toy sales etc what their money has achieved.

Hope you can help provide some details about how much more we need to collect to buy a pump? We'll continue collected through the next years regardless.

Thanks, Susie (& Katy aged 6)


1 Answer

0
Neil Noble
Energy

Dear Susie and Katy,

I am very impressed with your fundraising efforts. Although I cannot be precise about what cost of a solar water pump as each situation will be different and will depend on the depth of the water and the amount of water that is pumped each day. It will also make a difference how far the pump is from the town where the equipment is being supplied, I can provide with some of the costs that we have from our work in Kenya that could be useful as a guideline.

The cost estimates for one of the pumps installed in Kenya are shown below. I do not have the corresponding performance figures for this particular installation.

Item No

Item

Kenyan Shillings

US dollars

Pounds Sterling

1

Tap

1500

15

10.65

2

Concrete Block

1,500

15

10.65

3

Training Fee

4,500

45

31.95

4

Plastic Pipe

2,700

27

19.17

5

Metal Pipe

5,500

55

39.05

6

Solar panel of 100 watts

3,500

35

24.85

7

Solar pump accessories ( wiring, control unit, the white pipes)

540,000

5400

3834

8

Solar pump

260,000

2600

1846

9

Tank of 10,000 litres capacity

90,000

900

639

10

Labour (skilled & unskilled)

100,000

1000

710

Total

1009200

10092

7,165.32

1 Kenya Shilling = 0.01 US$ and 0.0071 Pounds. More than 1 solar panel is used for each pump.  

The element missing from the costing above is drilling the borehole which would be a considerable addition. Although the depth of borehole will vary the depth could be up to 100m in the locations where Practical Action is working. This will also have a significant impact on the water supply as or the cost of extraction.

More generally, Solar water pumps can pump from depths of 180m although it does start to get quite challenging at that depth. Practical Action has not ever attempted to pump from such a depth.

A couple of examples we have from Kenya are of much shallower depths.


S/N

Site name

District

Depth (m)

Yield (m3)

SWL

Population served

1

Upper Kotela

Loima

60

1.8

34

2658

2

Lorengelup

Turkana Central

80

2.4

25

3400

Total number of people served

6058

The supplier was a relatively large company in the region that deals with water pumping equipment.

Davis & Shirtliff Ltd
PO Box 41762, Dundori Road
00100
Nairobi
Kenya
Tel: +254 20 536901
Fax: +254 20 557617
E-mail: d&s@dayliff.com
Website: www.dayliff.com

I have listed a few details about the work Practical Action has been involved in and I would also like to highlight the technical brief that Practical Action has produced on the subject https://practicalaction.org/solar-photovoltaic-waterpumping-1

In some of the locations in Turkana, they are so remote that it was decided that solar water pumps were not appropriate because if they were to break then it would be very difficult to get replacement ... (more)