VEV rehabilitates wind-powered water pumps in Senegal, bringing water to villages

Between 1982 and 1991, donor funding installed hundreds of wind powered water pumps in Senegalese villages to supply agricultural production and village needs. But without maintenance and repairs, most pumps stopped working. One local man who had worked on installing the pumps was determined not to see them fail, however.

Michel Tine and three colleagues formed a company, VEV (meaning Wind Water for Life), to take up where aid organisations had left off. He knew of 130 wind pumps that failed due to a lack of expertise for maintenance and spares for repair. Unfortunately, villagers did not have the cash to pay for his services – and could not get cash because they could not grow crops without adequate water.

Unable to get financing from the local bank, he approached ENDA, the Senegalese partner of the United Nation’s African Rural Energy Enterprise Development program (AREED). With the aid of E+Co, they put together a package of support that helped VEV meet the villages’ needs for pump maintenance.

Villagers paid for wind pumped water by the bucketful, allowing VEV to repay the loan and invest a modest profit back into the company. VEV now maintains pumps for 50 villages. To date, almost 30,000 people have benefited from the improved water supply, and over 140 million litres of clean water have been pumped, improving health and freeing up the time of women and children who traditionally collected water.

E+Co, the catalyst of the Energy Cures Campaign, is a non-profit financial services company helping to create viable, sustainable businesses to end world poverty while protecting the planet. With offices in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and North America, E+Co has mobilized over $157 million, provided modern energy to over 3.6 million people, supported almost 3,000 jobs and offset 2.2 million tons of CO2, since it began work 13 years ago. E+Co has proven that investing $7.00 in a local business will bring clean energy to a poor person.

Its activities target local energy entrepreneurs and innovators, using an "enterprise centered business model" that emphasizes decentralized, renewable energy and energy efficiency, and private sector led businesses. Successes include local job creation and reforestation from a small hydroelectric project in Honduras that displaces 100% diesel powered energy; solar home systems displacing kerosene lanterns for lighting in rural Nicaragua, India, Nepal and Tanzania; liquid petroleum gas substitution for firewood and charcoal in deforested rural areas of Ghana, Mali and Senegal, and small fruit and vegetable farmers in Brazil and Tanzania drying their fruits through solar power.

This story was compiled from a variety of sources, including a program about VEV that was part of series 5 of the Hands On Ideas to Go environmental programs produced by the Television Trust for the Environment; a description of VEV on the AREED website; and information about VEV and E+Co on the “Energy Cures” campaign site.

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