Rope Pump Firm
PRODUCTION FIGURES
In the initial phase the market was opened exclusively through selling to the private sector
users. From '93 onwards water and sanitation projects and rural development projects started
to use the rope pump in their programs. Some of them used credit schemes and others donated
the pumps. By '95 the pump was recognized by the national rural water supply department as a
viable alternative, an enormous step forward. A political opening was created in the national
water and sanitation bureaucracy.
In Nicaragua besides the rope pump firm, about 10 workshops can be found producing rope pumps.
In this figure an estimate of the development of the rope pump production is presented. The
total number of installed pumps is around 20.000, the production is now almost 5000 pumps a
year. The rope pump density per capita is around 1 pump per 100 persons in rural area, the
highest handpump density in the world, probably.
The high production rate of the last two years is mainly thanks to the inclusion of the pump
in the programs of international organisations active in Nicaragua such as UNICEF, WHO, EHP,
CARE, Red Cross, Médicins sans Frontières, Save the Children, Foster Parents, etc.
The reason why they do so can be found in the social acceptance and the favourable
characteristics of the rope pump
