Award-winning Bacolod invention goes places

BACOLOD CITY—A machine designed to bring clean water to poverty-stricken communities without the use of electricity is now in use in Nepal, according to the head of a nongovernment organization based here that invented the machine which won international awards for the NGO.

Auke Idzenga, head of the technical department and management team chair of Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation Inc. (Aidfi), said he and another Aidfi official, Roy Inocencio, installed ram pumps in the district of Dhading in Nepal from May 15 to June 5.

The project was part of a deal between Aidfi and Centre for Rural Technology (CRT) in Nepal. CRT is another NGO that develops and promotes renewable energy technology that could help poor rural communities.

Idzenga said as a mountainous country, Nepal is an ideal site for the hydraulic ram pump, which brings water to high elevations without the use of electricity.

The pumps have been installed in a Nepal village with 25 households and where villagers, especially women, fetch water from a source downhill.