Even less celebrated than the pump is its sadly anonymous inventor, a mechanic from Sholapur, Maharashtra. Till 1967 it was known as the Sholapur Pump. It’s specialty was the ability to pump from depths beyond 25′.

Both 1967 and 25′ are significant numbers to deserve our attention. By 1967, India’s traditional simple methods of accessing water from wells, ponds and via the classical S-handled pumps became difficult. 20 years into Independence, a rapidly growing population and urbanisation appear to have lowered the water table. Concentrations in cities and towns made hand drawn water from ponds and wells impractical. Oil engine driven agricultural pumps accelerated water depletion. A culture that had practiced rain-fed or surface irrigation for centuries was running out of water; water by the early sixties, had to be accessed from greater depths.

All mechanical lift pumps can only pump from a maximum depth of 25′. The reason for this is worth learning by every non-technical homesteader. The atmospheric pressure at sea level is 14.7 psi [pounds per square inch] or 1bar. What this means in practical terms is this: if a perfectly friction free pump has a 33′ long suction pipe let into a well, then if pulling the piston up like a syringe creates a perfect vacuum, then atmospheric pressure acting on the well water’s surface will push the water all the way up the 33′ long suction pipe. That is the theoretical limit. In reality there is always friction and a perfect vacuum is impossible to create. Therefore it is not possible to draw water from depths more than 25′.

In 1967, when India faced widespread drought it appealed to UNICEF for help. And in came a battalion of drilling rigs that could bore down to hundreds of feet.”Between 1970 and 1974, UNICEF shipped in 125 hammer rigs, along with trucks and spare parts. Each of these rigs could drill about 100 boreholes a year — theoretically supplying water to 12,000 villages and about 9 million people” [All quotes are from this reference]What was needed was a rugged hand pump that can lift water from 150′ depths.

The way to lift water from very deep wells is to place the pump within 25′ of its level or better still, submerge it. Electric submersible pumps do just that. The pump and its driving motor are encased in a waterproof tube and lowered into deep well. Power is supplied via a flexible cable and the pump’s discharge is led to the surface via flexible pipes.

The Sholapur Pump, the forerunner of the Mark 2 pump is a manual, reciprocating equivalent of the electric, rotary, submersible pump. Referring to the illustration at right, the “Cylinder Assembly->” [shown in red in the upper picture], is let down deep into the water in the “Bore Hole Casing->”. A “Connecting Rod->” connects the “Plunger Rod->” of the “Cylinder Assembly->” with the “Handle Assembly->”. The “Stand Assembly->” may be at the surface and the “Cylinder Assembly” as far down as 150 feet. When the handle is operated water is ‘pushed up’ by the cylinder [instead of 'lifted from' as in older pumps]. Water rises to the surface in the “Riser Pipe->” Thus water deep down became accessible due the Sholapur Pump design, and its derivative the modern Mark 2.

What has been happening at pointReturn? What is daily life like? What have been the changes in the last three years?

What is the progress on the four self-sufficiencies of the mission- water, food, energy and cash?

Is the dream still intact? Who is keeping it alive? How are we going to realise them in full?

A new long story answers all your questions: Click here to read ]]> http://goodnewsindia.com/pointreturn/online/home/2010/07/inside-pointreturn/feed/ 4 http://goodnewsindia.com/pointreturn/online/home/2009/12/a-primer-on-swales/ http://goodnewsindia.com/pointreturn/online/home/2009/12/a-primer-on-swales/#comments Wed, 30 Dec 2009 13:12:25 +0000 pointR http://goodnewsindia.com/pointreturn/online/home/?p=306 Read]]> An extended article explaining all aspects of swale design and construction has been published at this location: http://goodnewsindia.com/pointreturn/online/swales/

The article has photos, a video and a slideshow. It has links to additional related material.

Since then it rained robustly on one day in July and teasingly for three days in a row in September. And that has been that. I await another story in another two months, that this year’s NEm was the weakest too, in decades. After all, is it going to rain down 700mm in the next 60 days?

No signs of it so far. If it does do that spread over the next two months it would indeed be a wonderful thing. Steady regular rain results in minimal runoff, saturates the soil slowly and maximises recharge. If on the other hand, the whole lot fell over just a few days, the NWm may emerge statistically correct, but would have wrought havoc and destruction.

I have been periodically photographing the main pond at pointReturn. It has a brim capacity of 1.6 million litres and safe capacity [as shown in the top picture, right] of 1.2 million litres. So far, this has served as the main water storage body at the project.

The scene is like in the top picture in every January, just when the big ticket rain of the NEm has ended. And then depletion begins almost at once, due to percolation and evaporation. By June the pond looks like in the middle picture. Just then, even an average SWm due in July will refill the pond and it will go back to looking something like the top picture again. And with that we ride out the time till the NEm in late October.

This year the July rains failed and the pond did not refill. It went on depleting. About ten days ago, it looked like in the picture at the bottom. Today it looks worse.

In the meantime, average temperatures are in the mid-30s, about 8 degC higher for this time of the year. That abets evaporation. The long suffering windmill keeps turning, most of the time running dry, and periodically pumping the little quantity that collects at the borewell via a few active underground springs. It is known to have pumped 20,000 litres in a day in December-January; today we survive on 1,000 litres or thereabouts that it manages.

Being close to this reality I marvel at how unconcerned our cities are. The local papers that ought to frontpaging the emerging crisis are focused elsewhere. For me, whose income does not depend on the farm produce, it is nevertheless an agonising time. I have redoubled the effort to create more water bodies so that the next year may feel more secure. What of the others dependant on the land? There are murmurs everywhere about evil times and there is resignation. When people go hopeless, the powderkeg comes into view. We are approaching life on the edge.

What ought to be done? That’s another story. I can tell it were I certain it will fall on the right ears. Quite symbolically our prime minister has wrapped his ears over; his face appears vacant of any vision. Instead it appears filled with instructions received decades ago as a diligent student. At a minimum, I will be grateful if he and his cohorts did not enrage me by being regularly photographed with bottles of chilled drinking water in front of them. They are mere dumb models for companies that mine and market water. They cannot see beyond bottled water.