Pumps are built in response to grassroots demand and in full consultation with the local community. The local community come together to assist in the building process, providing materials such as bricks, sand, stones and unskilled labour. The Elephant Pump can also supply water for irrigating nutrition gardens where communities can grow crops to improve their diet and sell the surplus.
<!--The pump is hand powered powered, but can be adapted to wind, solar or even a bicycle. 21 other African countries have lined up to implement similar projects. The core program of pump building in Zimbabwe has grown with 432 Elephant Pumps installed in 2012 compared to 367 in 2011. This is now a massive program with the Elephant Pumps, managed by [http://www.theafricatrust.org/ The Africa Trust], providing clean water for over 10% of the entire population of Zimbabwe. In addition to the core staff, it has been possible to provide contract work to over 40 other individuals during the course of the year.--> Pump Aid believes that each pump is at the heart of sustained water and sanitation improvement. Each pump we build addresses all the needs at installation point and for lifetime stewardship, including:* Pump Build* Community engagement* Embedded sanitation change* Sustainability of clean water* Impact assessment. The Elephant Pump has helped to deliver clean water to over 1.1 million people since 1998, building over 8,000 pumps across 3 nations; Malawi, Zimbabwe and Liberia.
==Construction, operation and maintenance==
==Costs==
The cost of an Elephant Pump is includes a combination of two elements: ‘Hardware’ and ‘Installation’. The total cost full range of providing the hardware for the Elephant Pump is around £600, with small variances on items such as cement programme activities from country to country. The cost of installation can vary from country to country and region to region. It includes items such as survey cost, well digging, bricks, occasionally blasting and in country costs of staff and fuel etccommunity training. As a benchmark these have averaged in Malawi, for example, at £3000 per Elephant Pump installation. According to [http://www.treehugger.com/clean-water/elephant-A single pump-wins-award.html Treehugger.com], serves a pump community of up to serve 500 120 people can be made for a total cost of and costs on average about £200 ($350 USD)£3, with the major components having a lifespan of 50 years000.
==Manuals, videos and links==
