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A green project in the hillside communities of the Philippines that generates cheap and clean water for residents was chosen as one of the top 10 finalists in this year’s Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy which recognize innovative energy efficiency projects in the United Kingdom (UK) and developing countries.

Organizers of the Ashden Awards said that the Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation Inc. (AIDFI) from the Philippines will compete with contenders from Bangladesh, China, Ghana, India, Laos, Nepal, Peru and Tanzania for five awards and at least £200,000 prize money to fund project expansion.

The 10 “renewable energy pioneers” from various countries will be in London next month for the last stage of the judging process.

Former US Vice President Al Gore will present the prizes at the Ashden Awards ceremony to be held at the Royal Geographical Society in London on June 21.

The Ashden Awards said the AIDFI has been selected for developing and installing specially designed ram pumps that provide water to residents in 68 hillside villages in the Philippines.

Information posted at the Ashden Awards website noted that these ram pumps, which are capable of pumping water up to heights of 200 meters, are bringing clean water to more than 15,000 people who previously had to often traverse difficult and dangerous routes just to collect clean water.

Hilly terrain is ideally suited to ram pump technology and the AIDFI decided to focus on this as the best and cheapest available solution.

The ram pump technology pumps water from a lower level to a higher level without the use of electricity or diesel pumps.

“Many people living in hillside villages in the Philippines do not have easy access to fresh water, and have to make a difficult journey down steep slopes to collect what they require for their basic needs from springs, valley streams or rivers,” the website reported.

The AIDFI has been exploring ways of providing hillside villages with access to clean water that is cheap, reliable and does not depend on fossil fuels since early 1990s.

This prompted Auke Idzenga, one of the founders of AIDFI, to design a ram pump that would last.

Idzenga traveled around the Philippines and surveyed all the ram pump installations that he could find. He identified the design factors crucial to successful operation, and realized what was needed to reduce the cost of the pump.

Idzenga’s research resulted in an innovative durable ram pump design that included cheap and locally-available options for those moving parts that need regular replacement.

These ram pumps use the power of the water flowing in the spring, stream or river to lift a small fraction of the water up to 200 meters vertically, and sometimes pump it over a kilometer to where it is needed. It operates continuously and delivers water to a reservoir in the village of 1,000 to 50,000 liters.

The Ashden Awards noted that in the last 10 years, AIDFI has installed 98 ram pumps in 68 communities, providing people with access to clean water, including irrigation to large areas of land.