[[Image:volanta pump.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The Volanta pump with flywheel. Photo: [http://www.rural-water-supply.net/en/implementation/handpump-overview/volanta RWSN.]]]
[[Image:volanta pump2.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The Volanta pump is easy to maintain. Photo: [http://www.rural-water-supply.net/en/implementation/handpump-overview/volanta RWSN.]]]
[[Image:afripump.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The Afripump requires less maintenance. Photo: [http://www.handpump.org/afri_pump/index.htm Handpump.org]]]
The Volanta Pump, created by Jansen Venneboer B.V. is a reciprocating pump driven by a large flywheel for medium to very deep wells. It uses a retractable cylinder and a seal-less stainless steel piston. A crank and a connecting rod convert the rotary motion into a reciprocating action, which is transmitted to the plunger via stainless steel pump rods. The crankshaft and the flywheel run on ball bearings mounted on a plate that can be fixed to a steel or concrete pedestal. The cylinder is of glass fibre reinforced plastic with a close-fitting seal-less stainless steel plunger. The complete cylinder can be lifted from the well by the threaded pump rods, without removing the PVC-U rising main. The stroke is adjustable to reduce the effort needed at deep installations.
==Construction, operations and maintenance==
Pump stand & flywheel are made of painted Mild Steel, the rising main consists of PVC-U pipes, the cylinder is made of glass fibre reinforced epoxy resin, plunger & the pump rods are of Stainless Steel and the valves of rubber. The pump is corrosion resistant.
This pump has a good “Community Management Potential”. Simple tools are needed to pull out the pumping element, including pump rod and foot valve. The seal-less piston means that no regular replacement of worn rubber seals is required.
====Afripump maintenance====[[Image:afripump tools.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The Afripump is easy to install. Photo: [http://www.handpump.org/afri_pump/index.htm Handpump.org]]] Installation of the Afripump is easy and can be done by one technical person and one assistant. The Afripump comes standard with strong 70/80 m PVC rising mains and 9 mm stainless steel rods with threaded connections (Volanta technology). For the installations, no special tools or tripod is required, only keys nr 24 and 17 are needed to complete the installation. When the concrete base and drainage platform is ready, the metal stand is fixed on 4 anchor bolts and the pipes are glued and lowered into the borehole casing up to the desired depth. The handle is fitted to the base with 4 M16 bolts. The cilinder is lowered with the rods and the last rod is attached to the handle. The cover is put on and the pump is ready to use.
Based on the experience with the Volanta handpump, the maintenance of the Afripump is limited to cleaning of the pump and platform, checking and occasionally tightening of some nuts & bolts, maybe applying paint from time to time, all other parts are maintenance free.
The Afripump is also 100 % VLOM (Village Level Operated & Maintained) because the few simple activities can be done by a local caretaker with local available materials and require no special tools, equipment or training.
==Costs==
Studies show that families in rural communities will agree to pay 1 to 3 US$ per month for a reliable water supply, especially when there are no alternative nearby water souces availabale. One handpump can serve 25 to 50 families that need 125 to 250 buckets of 20 litres/day, which equals 3 to 6 hours of pumping. This is enough to pay 25 to 50 US$ per month for the supervisor, the remaining revenues are sufficient to pay back the loan fully in 3 to 5 years.
==Manuals, videos, and links==