“Abolish all aid in 5 years, only then the African countries can make the leap to the economic growth“. This is written by the Zimbabwean Dambisa Moyo in the book “Dead Aid” (2009). She describes, amongst many other things, that the handing out of cheap Chinese mosquito nets makes the local mosquito net maker penniless. There are no difference compared to what happens in the Netherlands. When the Postcode lottery is distributing bicycles, it influences the turnover of the local bicycle stores and they are angry about this.
SDO and ADI do not want to give out anything; they want a local economy to grow by establishing local companies, for example for the Blue Pump. Step one is the selling of the pump and that is successful because of the 5 year warranty that ADI offers. Step two is the fast and effective action when a pump breaks down. That is only possible when trained technicians, spare parts and means of transport are available not just for a short period, but as part of the organization. We are working on that for over a year.
We have had the bad luck (or if you look at it differently; we were lucky) that many parts broke for the first 10 Blue Pumps that are placed. Everyone involved was very much challenged: the technicians, the project leader, the manufacturer and us, from SDO. The teams had to react 19 times on broken pumps and dismantle them, over 200 parts are replaced. The teams attended a refresher course.
The main cause was related to a fault in the production of the sockets that connect two pipes. It costed a lot of money and delayed the project, but it also benefits from it. In fact, we build up expertise, the teams gained experience and knowledge of the pump, all aspects that are hardly taken care of when pumps are distributed for free.
In September we saw the experienced teams working on the pumps and we were impressed by their commitment. Moreover in January it will arrive a four wheel drive specially for the installation teams. Everything and everyone is ready to speed up the program of the Blue Pump.
The project 1000 Blue Pumps for Mali is significantly more than 1000 pumps, it is a real development.