Pumping water uphill

I am a Frisian, minority in Holland, and possess a lot of their general characteristic: perseverance, idealistic, practical, ambitious, restless, unconventional, inventive, conquering and love for water.  I followed practical education: marine engineering, worked on three cargo ships before deciding to change course by migrating to Philippines and start working among sugar workers.  Became co-founder of AIDFI, an NGO working on Appropriate Technologies for basic needs. I designed a crossbreed model of the hydraulic ram pump for local manufacturing which became the flagship technology of AIDFI.  The AIDFI ram is pumping water uphill to already 570 far flung villages and farms, benefiting some 270,000 people. I received in behalf of AIDFI numerous awards like Ramon Magsaysay Award (Asian Nobel Prize), and personally the St. Teresa of Calcutta Award as ‘Engineer for the poor’.  Am the CEO of AIDFI and arrange for technology transfers to other countries and further innovations.

Hundreds of thousands upland communities and farms have no easy access to drinking, domestic or irrigation water.  A maximum of 40 liters/day/household gives lots of challenges.  Farmers depend on unpredictable rainfall and experience low production.  Many migrate to the cities where joblessness among the youth is high.  Our solution is the AIDFI ram which pumps water to high elevations without external energy like fuel or electricity, just waterpower.  The ram pump operates automatically, 24/7, increases the volume supplied, thereby changing the lives of the villagers.  The AIDFI model can be produced with local skills, materials and spare parts and comes with a holistic package of social preparation, training of local technicians and App monitoring. AIDFI, as a social enterprise creates meaningful jobs in the manufacturing and installation of its ram pump.  AIDFI has already replicated its work in four countries through technology transfers and would love to do much more.

After 1985 when I moved to the Philippines to work among the poor, I observed the absence of most basic services in the rural communities.  Water (drinking, domestic and irrigation) was always the most pressing problem, especially in the uplands.  Despite the right to water, some 785 million people lack basic drinking-water service and 2 billion lack access to a toilet in the world. In the Philippines, some 10 million people lack access to basic water and in 2015, there were still 27 million without access to "improved" sanitation (WHO).  Irrigation in the uplands has been on downtrend and most areas are just rainfed.  In general, there are hundreds of thousands upland villages and farms without easy access to drinking, domestic and irrigation water. Reasons for that vary from low priorities, politically not interesting enough areas, poor materials, and construction (corruption) to absence of appropriate technical solutions for pumping to high elevations. The absence of easy access to drinking or domestic water result in time and money spent for fetching, health issues (water borne and skin diseases), sanitation problems, difficulties doing laundry, hard to grow vegetables, raise livestock and fish among others. Absence of irrigation means crop limitation and failures.

The project/program is about a crossbreed of commercial and DIY ram pump models: the AIDFI ram pump.  It is robust, efficient, rather cheap, can be manufactured with local materials and easily available spare parts and therefore manufactured in different countries besides the Philippines and comes with a holistic package. The AIDFI pump is a perfect option for situations where the sources are far below the villages or farms: it utilizes power contained in falling water, operates 24/7 and does not emit any GHG.  A perfect Climate Smart technology, outdoing other technologies which have their limitations in terms of pumping high elevations and in remote areas.  With the AIDFI ram pump different lower situated sources like springs, streams and rivers can be tapped from where the ram delivers water through HDPE pipes to a higher situated reservoir and from their distributed to clusters of households through a water kiosk or to farms.  The water delivered 24/7 changes the lives of the beneficiaries tremendously in terms of time, health, sanitation, food production and livelihoods. The local manufacturing and installation of ram pumps and systems create the necessary meaningful employment and some income as well to the over a thousand trained village technicians.

Our main beneficiaries are villagers and farmers from poor upland communities, who have mostly been neglected by the government in terms of provision of basic services.  The areas in which they live can be far and remote.  Most of them are living in a survival mode and involved in basic agricultural activity.  Their biggest need as expressed by them is water, more even than electricity.  They spent time and many, especially the old ones are paying for the water fetching.  Some 10% of the communities we serve with water systems are indigenous. Basically we know what they need from the many installations we did, but involve the beneficiaries in the survey, feedbacking on the design, establishing of the clusters of households for the water kiosks, hauling, actual construction, formation and registration of water associations, training's and technology transfers to the local technicians.  The projects solve most of their water issues: health, sanitation, money, and time saved, bathing, laundry, watering of vegetables, raising of animals like livestock and fish.  The same is true for farmers if organized through a farmer’s association.  Their benefits come from irrigation water at hardly any cost which increases their production.  Then there are the individual clients.

It is a combination of dimensions.  AIDFI passionately engages in manufacturing the AIDFI ram, installing systems and the communities to establish sustainable ownership over the systems and trigger development with the entry of free-flowing water.  Development covers not just economical but also social aspects.  For example, all association members are being equal in the association.  In some cases, there is a revival of the ’Bayanihan’ system called (spirit of communal unity, work, and cooperation to achieve a goal).  The associations are empowered to lobby for further development.  Then AIDFI does advocacy around the issue of access to water in uplands.

In 1984 in preparation for my work among the poor in the Philippines, I volunteered with an Appropriate Technology group on a Technical University in Holland.  I worked in the waterlab with a ram pump, completely made from concrete/cement.  For me unbelievable.  In the Philippines there was no time to work on it immediately, that would come in 1990 with my first privately built and installed ram pump.  In 1992 I started with three others AIDFI with the idea to assist upland communities with low cost technologies for basic needs (water, sanitation, energy, production, and processing).  The ram pump however would end up as the flagship technology, covering today 90% of the work of AIDFI.  Not only did the model evolve but also a holistic package was built around it and still being expanded and improved.  I designed a working miniature (scaled down) of an AIDFI ram system for advocacy, and marketing and that really moved the technology forward.  The fact that there are still hundreds of thousands of villagers and farmers unnecessary facing daily difficulties and struggles caused by not having easy access to water has made me and AIDFI nearly fully focus on the work with ram pumps.

It is the combination of working with a sustainable environment friendly technology which can solve many water related issues and changes lives in poor upland communities. We are super proud of the unique AIDFI ram model.  Despite the hundreds of installations, it remains amazing experiencing ram pumps bringing up water to high elevations without electricity or fuel. It is also the passion for manufacturing and installation through social entrepreneurship and by that creating necessary meaningful jobs.  On top of that we got to travel to nice remote areas and even other countries. For myself it is the fulfillment of doing all the above.  Personally, I do not have financial ambitions and am content with simple living serving others.  I and AIDFI do have dreams to further spread the ram pump to other countries.  Eventhough, we only get a payment for a one-time-life-time license, to see pictures of the AIDFI ram pump still being manufactured and installed in remote areas of Afghanistan and Nepal, makes us feel happy.  And recently to see the Bhutanese government being excited about their first ram pump project: AIDFI model.  The attractive aspect is that there are always exciting new opportunities and no stagnancy.

About myself, I have

• a deep commitment to help the poor through technologies which they can manage easily.  Made an option for the poor in 1984 and still have the same passion.
• the drive to reach goals even it takes long and never give up
• as a Dutch been working with local salaries for the past 8 years and able to sustain that
• a technical background with a broad interest and ability to carry out practical research
• the skills to easily relate to a lot of different types of people and groups
• practical experiences in urban gardening (vegetables, layers for eggs, pigs, native chicken for meat)
• practical experience in contour farming on sloping hills
• experience in fabricating and local and international installations of ram pumps
• a strong believe in social entrepreneurship
• personal experience in running (very) small enterprises: community store, community coffee shop (self-roasted coffee), massage oil production and before a sports tailoring shop

About AIDFI which has:

• a long history of working at the grassroots level and working with the poorest through technologies for basic needs, with as flagship the AIDFI ram pump
• assets like lot, building, precision machines, transportation means
• strong sense for innovation
• strong team with multi disciplines (research & development, community & enterprise development, financial skills, networking, management)
• experiences in manufacturing and installation of water & sanitation, biogas, wind and hydro power projects, mostly community based.
• experience in doing international ram pump projects and technology transfers

AIDFI became more and more known for its locally manufactured small-scale technologies (with the AIDFI ram pump as flagship) which were set up in a small mini Techno Park (for advocacy and marketing) at the back of our office. On a yearly basis we received around 4000 visitors.  A foundry shop owner, who earned good money with a copied and heavily overpriced agricultural shredder, observed the success of AIDFI and saw ‘dollar’ signs in his eyes.  He pirated several people from AIDFI who brought with them designs.  He copied nearly everything we were doing and even got our designed distiller patented.  He tried his luck with his own model ram pump but later failed.  First it was very painful to see somebody copy everything on which you and the organization worked for years.  But we realized very well that we served different clients and different objectives.  The foundry could never enter our area of CSR programs and we prefer not to work directly with corrupt government officials.  His installations were compromised for maximization of profit while we maximize the quality of everything and work on sustainability.  From this experience we learned to explain well why AIDFI is different.

My Filipino family-in-law has since the 1950’s been cultivating a sloping 5 hectares upland farm as ‘poor’ tenants.  The owners and corrupt staff from the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) made a secret deal to engage in a fictitious landreform case of the whole 15 hectares property.  They overpriced it by 15 times, used dummies, did not list the original tenants, and kept the new land title in a drawer.  I discovered the scam, started questioning and was able to get Pa on the title.  After that it became war.  From a fictitious intended land reform case, it now had to be implemented and it was never the plan of the owners to lose their land. Since discovery in 2007 I have a long battle with the DAR.  The landowners tried twice to have me deported but didn’t succeed.  From defending only the family farm, I became part of the formation of an Alliance of 24 similar long dragging agrarian cases. I am in the process now of exposing the fraud and corruption with the Philippine Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) and the Anti Red Tape Authority.  Many victims who no longer had hope are encouraged to carry on with their cases.

The ram pump was a forgotten technology, overtaken by the Industrial Revolution and later the cheap energy prices. When I started working with the technology in the Philippines in 1990, it was completely unknown. My first design was kind of a DIY model which turned out to be inferior in quality and performance.  I then quickly moved on to a crossbreed model by taking the best of commercial and DIY models.  The result the robust and efficient AIDFI ram model which we patented.  The actual installations started promoting themselves and the ram got popular.  AIDFI’s work is for 90% focused on the ram pump technology and as a social enterprise the work is carried out with passion and the biggest reward are the happy faces of the beneficiaries. There have been short lived attempts in copying our work but fabricating good quality ram pumps and setting up sustainable systems is not that easy.  Many (out for easy money) backed out, except one who sells his systems at very high prices and we do not consider him a competitor.  The strength of AIDFI is in the holistic package around the technology which earned us a partnership with the Coca Cola Foundation since 2012.  There are other sources of power like wind, solar, grid and fuel but pumps powered by those sources have their limitations by either not able to pump high, expensive source, high transportation cost (for fuel), high repair and maintenance cost and in many cases unreliable sun or wind.

The ram pump installations are carried out through short term interventions in which period AIDFI as technical service provider tries to work hard on creating ownership over the technology by the community. Mostly this is a period of around 3-4 months in which a holistic approach is applied from social preparation (legalities, set up, registration and training of water association and introduction to local government units and agencies), actual installation, training of local technicians and formal turnover.  Monitoring through the App is continued afterwards and if required, technical or organizational interventions can be done.  Often the association is the first organization in the community and helps the women to be equally involved.  Many associations consist of 50 or even more percent of women since water is a big concern for them.  But besides water also other community issues are being discussed and this empowers the member, especially the women.  There are also communities where the old community cooperation called ‘Bayanihan’ is being revived through common activities, like cleaning of public spaces.  Then many associations register themselves in the local government units and become members of development councils.  This is exactly the idea of AIDFI: the ram pump triggering further development/empowerment in the communities.  There are associations which were able to save substantial amounts from the water fees (mostly between 1-2 dollars/month) collected and besides using those for operation, repair and maintenance, expansion of the project to complete new activities like buying pieces of land for vegetable production, fishpond and means of transport to monitor the project.  In the program of AIDFI funded by Coca-Cola Foundation a livelihood program was added and implemented by another organization which used the local available resources as their starting point.  The trainings and later marketing of products concerned coco sugar, virgin coconut oil, souvenirs from bamboo, papaya soap and so on.  AIDFI started working long term in two upland communities with ram pumps and initiated the formation of essential oil producers associations, which grow lemon grass and process those in oil in factories in the mountains since 2005 and 2010, which is marketed by AIDFI.

So far AIDFI has implemented systems in 570 villages and farms with a total of 270,000 beneficiaries reached. This is besides the number of beneficiaries reached by other local installers of AIDF ram pumps and the AIDFI model ram pump being manufactured and installed in Afghanistan, Nepal, Colombia, and Mexico.

On a yearly basis AIDFI now does some 20 ram projects itself which add around 10,000 beneficiaries. 

For the next five years the numbers will be more or less the same with more ram projects shifting to irrigation with lesser beneficiaries than the usual drinking and domestic water projects.

There are many dreams, ideas and plans for this and the coming five years.  For the next year to:

• Patent the newly developed mechanical (coin) operated water kiosk which provides 20 liters water for a one-peso coin (2-dollar cent), to protect the invention from being copied.
• Install initially a minimum of 200 water kiosks for fairer distribution and higher collection
• Distribute some 50 mobile phones with monitoring App to water associations
• Install 20 ram pump water systems
• Sell a minimum of at least 50 ram pump units to independent installation teams or private clients
• Find funding for the transformation of the present techno park to an interactive ram pump park showcasing the different applications (actual working ram installation, drip, sprinkler irrigation, water filtration among others)
• Search for CSR partner willing to offset its water or carbon footprint in ram projects.

Next five years to:

• Continue ram installations for both drinking and irrigation.
• Establish selling points for ram pumps all over the country
• Partner with micro credit groups for financing of ram systems
• Set up some 1000 water kiosks
• Train new independent installation teams in Philippines
• Carry out ram installations in other countries, most probably at least in Chile, Costa Rica, Thailand, and India.
• Carry out technology transfer to interested parties in other countries
• Organize water summits attended by water associations of installed ram pump systems for all over Philippines.

For this year there are several barriers caused by the COVID-19. 

• There are different restrictions for movement in different places (read islands) in the Philippines through which AIDFI is not able to survey or install systems.
• Our main funder Coca-Cola had decided to divert all planned funds for water projects to COVID-19 activities in urban, peri-urban and schools, so no new ram projects for the rest of 2020 funded by Coca-Cola Foundation.
• Despite being an environment friendly technology (using only surface water and not emitting GHG), AIDFI needs in some cases to go through the slow legal process for environment clearances.

Next five years:

• Uncertainty of continued programs with Coca-Cola despite their intention
• Same environmental clearances issues
• Dealing with government funded projects because of bureaucracy and corruption.

For this year:

• Concentrate on finding and implementing ram projects in areas with less restrictions, preferable on our island of Negros and neighboring island of Panay.
• Continue communication with Cola-Cola to keep the relationship warm but also scout very actively for other funders and that includes local government units, national government programs, NGO’s and private clients.
• Search and approach possible CSR programs for ram projects
• Develop a strategy in which the technology can be explained and demonstrates easily to those involved in the environmental regulations.

For the next five years:

• Search for CSR programs
• Apply the developed strategy for the environmental regulations
• Develop a solid system of dealing with government projects by sub-contracting with clear terms without any form of corruption on our side.

Before 2012 AIDFI was running the ram pump program one project at a time with different clients or financiers.  In 2012 the Bureau of Soil and Water Management (BSWM) of the Department of Agriculture (DA) here in the Philippines was selecting renewable energy driven pumps for small scale irrigation of their High Value Crop Program.  AIDFI presented its ram pump in a workshop and used its working miniature ram set for demonstration and was selected.  The BSWM on a yearly basis implements around 25 systems and most of the ram pump come from AIDFI and AIDFI has also installed many systems for the BSWM.

Also in the beginning of 2012 AIDFI was selected with the ram pump as a technical solution for the Coca-Cola Foundation Philippines, Inc.(CCFPI) to offset the water used in their bottling by providing the same amount of water to people (villages) or nature. The program called Agos had a huge impact and despite the fact that the target has been reached, continuous. After mainly working with drinking water projects, the program expanded to productive use.  There are two programs wherein CCFPI, DA and AIDFI are partnering together.  CCFPI providing the funds, DA identifying the agricultural sites and AIDFI implementing the ram pump irrigation projects. The target sites are in the poorest agricultural provinces and in agrarian reform communities.

The program with CCFPI is mostly in batches and has made the implementation for AIDFI more efficient.

Customer segments

- Government agencies

- Corporate Social Responsibility programs

- Foundations and other NGOs

- Private individuals

Value proposition

We offer low-cost technologies solutions for far-flung communities and private individuals. Our main product is the ram pump which is sold per unit or included in a whole water system. Aside from these technologies, we also sell essential oil produced from our assisted communities on the island of Negros. We offer complete packages from survey to social preparation to post project monitoring.

Revenue streams

- Grants

- Small donations

- Revenue from technologies

- Revenue from essential oils and by-products

- Revenue from Coffee shop operations

Channels

We communicate to them by pitching through contests or directly with target customers who are looking for a solution such as ours to help them achieve their target goals.

Customer relationships

We developed a constant monitoring tool that enable us to provide customers on a regular basis data on the provided systems installed. For some, the relationship lasts longer than the endeavor up to a period of 10 years.

Key activities

- Production

- Social Preparation

- Project Monitoring

- Technical Services (survey and installation)

- Post-Project Monitoring

Key resources

- Pool of highly trained technical people

- Years of experience on the ram pump technology

- 1,000 square meters building with workshop complete with machines and equipment for production

- Transport vehicles

- Operating capital

Key partners

- Communities

- Funding agencies

Cost structure

- Material cost

- Labor cost

- Salaries

For now, the activities of AIDFI are covered by a combination of grants and revenues. Grants make up 70% and revenues make up the remaining. AIDFI spends its funds in a very cost-effective way but deliver high quality end results.

The revenue or savings that come from the products and projects are put in a separate savings account. In our current 5-year strategic plan it was stressed that by becoming financially viable we should enable the foundation to still continue operating for a period of 1-year regardless of having no projects for that period. Currently, the foundation is able to this for a period of 6 months.

One major contributor to our grants is a partnership program with the Coca-Cola Foundation Philippines, Inc. (CCFPI) through their Corporate Social Responsibility we are bringing clean drinking water to communities and irrigation water to small farmer groups. This program has been running for over 8 years now.

AIDFI has been actively looking for programs the same as with the CCFPI and includes this as part of its pitches to investor events in contests.

We have also partnered with Government Agencies such as the Department of Agriculture (DA) to help implement their small-scale irrigation projects. So far, this has been a continuous program for already 5 years. Lately, the DA has partnered with the Coca-Cola program expanding to bring irrigation water to small farmer groups.

Later on, AIDFI hopes to generate more revenue streams through crowd funding and donation programs from individuals or corporations.

In the past 12 months, AIDFI was able to generate $ 195,000.00 of which 80% were grants/donations and 20% revenues from sale of products. For grants these were mostly from the Coca-Cola Foundation’s funded Agos ram pump projects whilst 5% were donations made to AIDFI.  Covid-19  had a great (negative) impact on the revenue.

The revenue comes from the sale of products of individual buyers of AIDFI. 60% of that is from ram pumps.

On a yearly basis, AIDFI can and targets to install 20 projects and to do this we hope to raise $ 600,000.00 annually through grants or Corporate Social Responsibility programs such as the Coca-Cola Foundation’s water program to offset its water use by providing water less communities with a sustainable water system.

AIDFI also hopes to generate revenue through crowd funding and fundraising activities in support of small farmers to get irrigation water for their upland farms.

For this year, we expected to expense close to $ 800,000.00 which covers project expenses, marketing and administrative expenses.  Around 80% of the expenses goes directly to the cost of installation from production to post-project monitoring. The cost of project installation includes the pre-fabrication, social preparation, construction and monitoring of the project during and up to a period of 10 years through our developed web and mobile application to provide technical and organizational support. But because of the Covid-19 situation the number of installations diminished with all the restrictions on movements.  In the same time for the same reason of Covid-19 less funds were received. 

Together with AIDFI, I am working hard to get attention for the ram pump technology which had a wrong timing in history, but which has a huge potential to impact and actually change lives of millions of uplanders in the world.  So far AIDFI has only scratched the surface of this potential.  In this digital era and with a perfect working cross breed model combined with a holistic package for a sustainable implementation, management and monitoring of systems we hope to put our work with the ram pump in the spotlight through the Elevate Prize.  This in the hope that:

- we find interested social entrepreneurs from other countries than the Philippines to whom we can transfer the technology

- we get attention from one or more companies with CSR programs which would like to offset their water and or carbon footprint through the ram pump technology.  There are calculations of carbon saved using the non GHG emitting ram pump. Water off setting is easy to calculate since each pump has a water meter at the end of the delivery line.

- find sponsors for complete ram systems or for our new water kiosk program for which we plan to set up a sustainability fund

- that with connections of the Elevate Prize, AIDFI can work on technical ideas.  For example, testing of the AIDFI ram pump on MIT of which the data can be used for marketing.

- like to be inspired by and to inspire myself other co-winners

Marketing, media, and exposure: to learn techniques for getting more exposure through the right channels to attract new clients, companies with CSR programs and to find interested social entrepreneurs to replicate our work.  Training on this would be timing since we just created a new position in AIDFI for a Content Creator and already have a Marketing and Sales Staff.

Product/service distribution: we would like to learn techniques and get more ideas on choosing and developing distribution channels and what is involved in having distributors.

Partnership goals: develop mutual relationships with organizations, institutions, companies through which we can further increase both quantity and quality of the work with the ram pump.  Or work with others in programs or projects anywhere in the world where the ram pump can play a role in their water challenge (drinking, domestic, irrigation or processing)

Difficult to answer that question now.  If we get to know the possibilities at MIT and the network of the Elevate Prize or that of the possible co-winners, we can brainstorm about appropriate ideas.  I can imagine that at the MIT there are test facilities and knowledge which made help our ram or new water kiosk to be further improved.  Or who knows there are connections to a company as Beaver Vending Machines so that together with the Elevate Prize we could do some wild thinking around either getting mechanical coin acceptors as sponsoring or even better, develop with Beaver the idea of our water kiosk using their mechanism.  This could be a perfect CSR program for them.