BASEflow is a Malawian organization, founded in 2017, that is working to improve the sustainability of groundwater sources in rural Malawi. 4 fields of intervention:

• Catchment protection
• Capacity building
• Social enterprise
• Preventative maintenance

BASEflow has created a series of animated short videos focused on the story of groundwater in Malawi. Our colleague Macmillan, project manager in the Central region used one of them, about preventative maintenance of handpumps in rural Malawi – called ‘Handpumps Everywhere, yet not a drop to drink?’. It was a way to promote the benefits of preventative maintenance as part of encouraging 82 participants, from Dowa, Kasungu, Mchinji and Ntchisi districts, to have service contracts with local water mechanics.

https://www.baseflowmw.com/2019/03/14/baseflow-video-sparks-discussion/

This is a real pleasure to collaborate between NGOs sharing the same objective of sustainable access to water.

Find the video below…

The pS-Eau published in its newsletter of January 2014 an article (in French !) presenting our maintenance projects in some of the countries of intervention of Inter Aide: Malawi but also Sierra Leone and Ethiopia…

See pages 4 to 7.

hystra.com/safe-water

Link to a study of 2011 produced by Hystra on ”Access to Safe Water for the Base of the Pyramid” and presenting 15 innovative projects led by social entrepreneurs, NGOs and businesses that propose a wide variety of solutions concerning access to safe water, each differing in terms of services, treatment effectiveness, technology and sustainability.

All of them provide solutions that cost less than the recommended 4% of the average income of a poor family in the BoP 500-1,000 range. The chosen projects also illustrate how the private sector can be called upon by public authorities to help develop and operate public infrastructure, or how it develops freely in areas with limited or no public service.

The hand pump maintenance services through networks of spare parts resellers and local mechanics developed in Malawi by Inter Aide and BASEDA are described pages 148 to 155.

Hystra is a global consulting firm working with businesses and social sector pioneers to design and implement hybrid strategies and innovative business approaches that: 

• are profitable, scalable and eradicate social and environmental problems
• combine the insights and resources of business and citizen sectors

This document – Member’s experience – published by the RWSN is describing the approach how it was in 2008 – Operation and Maintenance project in 2008 in the three districts of Mchinji, Dowa and Salima in Malawi.

It has been written in collaboration with by Bertrand De Saint Méloir, former program manager for Inter Aide at that time.