10 things to know about groundwater: 9 & 10

Hidden Treasure: 10 reasons to know more about groundwater / 2 priorities to take seriously – briefing note

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9. In rural areas groundwater is often the cheapest source of safe drinking water

The capital cost of a borehole and handpump is about USD40 per person (say USD1.50 per person per year). The recurrent costs are about USD4.50 per person per year. The total is about USD6.00 per person per year. Piped schemes cost about twice as much.

[Source: WASHCost Working Paper 8, 2013, IRCwash.org]

10. In urban areas many people use shallow ground-water despite the fact that it is very vulnerable to pollution

The high cost of connection to piped water services makes it more attractive to use a private well despite the poor water quality

New Picture

[Source: Danert, K, Adekile, D and Gesti Canuto, J (2014) Manually Drilled Boreholes: Providing water in Nigeria’s Megacity of Lagos and Beyond, Skat Foundation http://www.rural-water-supply.net/en/resources/details/618]

1 comment

  1. The costs seems rather over estimated! Drilling costs with handpump are between 5.000 and 15.000 US$ and an average borehole will last at least 25 years, so capital cost for a community handpump serving 500 people is between 200 to 600 US$ per year, so 0,4 to 1,2 US$ pppy.

    While recurrent cost for maintenance is on average between 500 and 50 US$ per year, depending if you use an India MK2 type pump or a durable BluePump. So for the same community about 1 or 0,1 US$ per year.

    It goes without saying that a community prefers a durable pump, because with a standard MK2 pump they will indeed pay a fortune (about 12.500 US$) for repairs over that 25 year period.

    Therefore the best way to help people and fight poverty with water projects, is to install durable pumps such as the Dutch BluePump, because people can use their savings for income generating activities.

    @:) cheers

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