We started training Pump Repair Technicians in Liberia in 1995. However, lack of repetitive experience and of spare parts often led these technicians to simply call the Lifewater office to send a repair crew, rather than trying to do the work themselves.
In 2005, some Lifewater volunteers, dressed in their Sunday best, were walking down the Bensenville Highway to a church service. They were flagged down by some women who said their pump had broken down the day before and they needed to get water for their families.
By pumping the handle, the volunteers realized the problem was not serious and could be solved without extra parts.
They asked if the two pump repair tools that had been provided with the pump were still in the village. A man named David soon arrived with them. He’d received Pump Repair Technician training but could no longer remember much from it.
The Lifewater volunteers offered to talk David through the repair process. He agreed but started his work very tentatively. The volunteers had him take one part off the pump, then put it back on; then take it off again while also taking off a second part, then putting them both back on; then taking three parts off and putting them back on… with each repetition David became faster. By the time he got down to the problem, he was working confidently.
When the pump was put back together, the local women pumped the handle and fresh cool water can pouring out! The women went wild, hugging and cheering David like he was the town superhero! He had an ear-to-ear grin!
No one even heard or responded to the Lifewater volunteers as they said farewell and headed off to church — leaving the superhero chatting with the excited women as they filled their buckets! And the seed for the idea of “guided pump repair” was planted.
