CLICK HERE FOR Steve's HOME PAGE
What's inside?
click on page number to go straight there
|
The Mecate pump is not the prettiest pump in the world.
It looks like bits salvaged from a crashed motorbike. What makes it special is
that a four-year-old can use it, as demonstrated here by a younger member of
Don Julio's family on Isla de La Tasajera - a beautiful sandspit islet
sandwiched between the open Pacific Ocean and the mangrove estuaries of the Rio
Lempa, El Salvador's largest river.
The Mecate is easy to use because it doesn't actually pump like a normal pump.
Instead it lifts the water to the surface on a piece of string. The string runs
around that wheel you can see in the picture, then in a big loop thorugh a
plastic pipe to the bottom of the well and back to the surface again. Spaced
out along the string are little plugs which trap the water in the pipe, a bit
at a time, and carry it to the surface where the waters spills out of an exit
pipe.
The Nicaraguan-designed pump is easily repaired, can be constructed in a
bicycle workshop for about US$50, and does away with all those brass foot
valves, plungers, grapples and other clunky pump bits often seen gathering moss
in 3rd world village squares.
Now there is a
wind-powered version
which has tin sails and wooden bearings. I look forward to seeing one of those.
|