On the road to Kalakho. Deepwell Handpump India Mark II
During the 1970s UNICEF became a key partner with the Government of India in the world’s largest rural water supply program owing to a series of droughts in India. On request from the Government of India, UNICEF brought 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. The Government supplied the hand pumps. However, a problem arose. Most of the hand pumps in India at that time were poor-quality cast-iron replicas of European and American models that had usually been designed for family use. The hand pumps, designed for single family use, were not up to the wear and tear of use by a community of 500 or more people. Not surprisingly, the pumps frequently broke down. What India needed was a strong, locally manufactured hand pump which could be easily maintained. This need led to the development of the India Mark II, now the world’s most famous hand pump. UNICEF worked with the Government’s Mechanical Engineering Research and Development Organization and Richardson and Cruddas, a Government-owned engineering company, to develop the India Mark II.