Negros NGO wins BBC prize for water delivery tech

It's all uphill from here for the Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation Inc.(AIDFI) whose flagship program, "The Hydraulic Ram Pump", was declared the winner of the BBC World Challenge 2010. AIDFI's entry, "The Only Way is Up", was chosen from 12 finalists out of 800 nominations. The program, which was first implemented in Cauayan, Negros Occidental in 1989, has helped 170 barangays to date. This means bringing water to some 50,000 people living in remote upland areas. Winning the World Challenge is a big boost for AIDFI because, apart from international prestige, the award comes with a grant and an assurance of continued support for the project. World Challenge, which has featured 70 projects and businesses, keeps in touch with the finalists in a 'Catch Up' section - their report card on how the projects are faring. Projects that aren't going so smoothly get some help from World Challenge, which sends in sustainable business advisers. This is the second time that a Philippine entry won the BBC World Challenge contest. In November 2005, Dr. Justino Arboleda's coconet (coconut geotextile) won the very first BBC World Challenge contest. Coconets are made from coconut fiber and hold loose soils together to prevent landslides due to soil erosion. Pump enhances village self-reliance Although the hydraulic ram pump has been around for centuries, AIDFI made modifications to make it more suitable and cost-effective for local use, enabling communities to have a sustainable and energy-efficient system for supplying water. "It uses power of the water, no electricity, no fuel. Just energy from the water, and bringing up water to a very high elevation," said Dutch development worker Auke Idzenga in a video on the BBC website. Idzenga founded AIDFI in 1991 with Leonidas Baterna. Since then, AIDFI has developed and promoted 15 technologies designed to suit the needs of villages, using locally available materials and considering the resource capacity of the locals for support and maintenance. AIDFI also trains community development workers to assist the villages in developing self-reliance. The hydraulic ram pump saves the villagers the back-breaking trouble of hauling water from the spring and carrying it up to their houses. The technology does not come for free, however. In Anangue, one of the villages that uses the hydraulic ram pump, each household is guaranteed water for a monthly payment of 20 pesos to the village Water Committee. The money is used for maintaining the pump, as well as raising a reserve fund for replacement of parts, should the need arise. "This invention could help improve the lives of so many poor villagers in mountainous regions, and should be shared to as many poor communities as possible,around the world," commented Delicia Sunio on the BBC site, where online voting was held from September 27 to November 12. The pump has not only helped communities in Negros. It has been installed in Afghanistan, Peru, West Timor, Vietnam, Cambodia, Ecuador, France, Malaysia, and South America. Selecting the finalists for the BBC World Challenge was not an easy task according to Richard O'Brien, chair of the jury. "It's been a very difficult job as before because you're trying to compare different types of enterprises, different projects at different stages of development. And those where some are really strong on the environment but maybe not so embedded in the community. And others which are really ticking all the boxes - strong community relations, strong environmental, very strong little businesses that are developing and with some great innovations," he said after the jury selected the 12 finalists from Peru, Guatemala, Denmark, Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia, India, Madagascar, Malawi, Rwanda and Mexico, and the Philippines. Now on its sixth year, the BBC World Challenge is a global competition aimed at finding projects or small businesses from around the world that have shown enterprise and innovation at grassroots level. The hydraulic ram pump is one such technology, which applies a relatively small technology to solve major challenges. The winners were chosen from the finalists via online voting at the BBC site, where 10-minute clips were posted explaining each finalist's project. With more than 16,500 likes on Facebook, AIDFI's entry won a grant of US$20,000, which is awarded for furthering the enterprise. The World Health Organization estimates that the minimal individual need for cooking, health and sanitation is about 10 gallons of water. Without the ram pump, villagers would not be able to bring enough water up. In Anangue, for example, the only local source is a spring 240 feet below the village, wrote Michael Royce of AIDFI partner organization Green Empowerment in his report on the project. "I had to fetch water many times a day and carry it in bamboo containers on my back. It was so difficult that I became sick and finally I was forced to leave the village," said Tinging Lagdamin in the video for "The Only Way is Up." "Since they brought the running water to the village I've come back to live here again," she said. The hydraulic ram pump has been recognized prior to winning this year's BBC World Challenge, including winning the Energy Globe Awards in 2007 and the Community Initiative category of the Energy Institute Awards in 2010. The award ceremonies, which were held in Amsterdam last Monday, will be broadcast on December 4 on the BBC World News as the last program in the World Challenge series. - TJD/MRT, GMANews.TV