USAID/ACEP
BEFORE While it is good exercise for young muscles, this manual pump was unable to provide enough water for the drinking, sanitary, and landscaping needs of the school.
USAID/ACEP
AFTER Now the schoolgirls can drink or wash at an array of taps set into a tank that holds water supplied by the new solar pump. A pipe at the top of the tank diverts overflow water outside the school walls, where local residents fill containers to take home. The old manual pump stands in the foreground, no longer needed.
Two USAID projects recently collaborated to install a solar-powered water pump at Shaikhan Girls School in the Mir Bacha Kot District of Kabul Province.
A sanitation project had been working with the school to improve sanitation facilities, but it was handicapped by the small amount of water that could be provided by the school’s manual pump.
A second USAID project related to clean energy came to the rescue with
a solar-powered pumping system capable of moving more than 35 cubic meters of water per day.
The system now provides a steady and abundant supply of water for school landscaping, drinking, washing, and sanitation purposes for more than 1,000 students from grades one to twelve. There is enough water left over to share with nearby residents.
Pumping Up Solar Power