Sand abstraction as a method of drawing water from sand rivers for domestic, livestock and irrigating small gardens using different systems has proven to be a useful method in the communal areas of zimbabwe.

The power of sand as a water source....

The Dabane Trust has installed simple handpump technology sand-abstraction systems at some 100 sites in Zimbabwe over a period of 14 years. The original installations put in place in 1992 are still in operation, independently managed by rural community groups.

The picture below shows the layout of a typical small-scale sand abstraction system as developed by Dabane Trust with a single home-made well-point and a flexible connecting pipe to a rower pump on the riverbank. The rower pump is situated no more than 5 metres above the saturated river sediment level and discharges water into a sump. Water is then transferred a greater distance and height by a Joma pump to a water supply point such as a water storage tank in a garden. This can be several hundred metres distant and some 8 metres higher. The Joma pump uses rower pump components in uPVC pipe work with standard pipe fittings mounted in a steel frame.