Starter Kit. Idea 420 of 500. Cluster 21
Solar water pumps for the smallholders, sold with a maintenance contract
The mechanism, from the book
The sun shines on every roof and the island imports its fuel.
The first step
Sit with 10 smallholders in one farming area and ask how they pump water now, what they spend on fuel or electricity each season, and how often the pump breaks. Get a supplier's quote for a solar pump installed, then offer it with a yearly maintenance contract and a repair promise. The proof is a farmer paying a deposit, or a farmers' group ordering together.
- Who pays first
- A smallholder who spends heavily on fuel for a diesel pump each season and has lost a crop when the pump failed at the wrong time.
- What leaves today
- Diesel for pumping is imported and paid for every season; a solar pump with a maintenance contract replaces that import with sunlight and a local mechanic.
Ask first
- Department of Agriculture. Ask which farming areas they see short of water for pumping.
- Sustainable Energy Authority. Ask whether support exists for solar pumps on smallholdings.
Check before you spend
The quality of the pump and panels, your ability to repair them locally, and a clear maintenance contract the farmer understands.
Find out these three numbers
- What do farmers spend on fuel for pumping each season?
- How often does the current pump break?
- What does a solar pump cost installed?
A comparison from the book
Denmark. Chapter Eleven
"a co-operative without an enforceable contract is a committee"
A farmers' group ordering together needs a signed contract, or the shared pump falls apart.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.