Experience in the transfer of handpump technology to less developed countries

Many of the world's nations have neither adequate water supplies nor sufficient sanitation facilities. The United Nations, therefore, designated 1981–1990 as the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade with the explicit goal of providing the world's poor with access to adequate water supplies and proper sanitations. Over the past eight years, the International Division of the Engineering Experiment Station at Georgia Tech has been helping the world's poorer countries assess their need for handoperated water pumps, develop effective hand pump programs, and manufacture, install, maintain and monitor the pumps. The purpose of this paper is to provide a methodology for technology transfer that is applicable to hand pumps as well as to numerous other hardware items.