Projects powered by passion

MANILA, Philippines –  For residents of the remote hillside farming community of Tinumpagan, Manjuyod in Negros Oriental, clean water is a precious commodity. In the past, they had to walk almost an hour up and down the hill carrying heavy containers just to fetch drinking water from the river. But things are different now, thanks to a wonder machine called the hydraulic ram pump system.

Using no electricity or fuel but only the pressure produced by the river flow to propel water higher than its original source, the ram pump feeds four tap-stands 100 meters uphill, and meets the water needs of the village’s over 60 families.

The ram pump is the award-winning brainchild and flagship technology of the Bacolod-based NGO Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation, Inc. (AIDFI). In an awarding ceremony held Nov. 27 in a very historic building along the canals of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, the ram pump was declared the grand prize winner of this year’s BBC World Challenge 10 Series, besting 12 finalists from all over the globe, all cited for their remarkable enterprise and innovation at the grassroots level.

But the BBC World Challenge victory was not the first. Other recognitions earned by AIDFI for its patented ram pump include the Energy Globe Awards in 2007 and the Community Initiative category of the Energy Institute Awards last month.

To date, AIDFI has introduced the ram pump in 170 upland communities in the Philippines, serving over 50,000 beneficiaries. Installations have also been done in partnership with local government units and other not-for-profit organizations – like Global Giving for the Tinumpagan ram pump – to make water accessible, particularly to impoverished communities in the Philippines. But its reach has expanded exponentially, as the technology has already been spread to other parts of Asia – including Afghanistan – and even as far as South America.

AIDFI was founded in 1991 by Dutch Auke Idzenga, together with Leonidas Baterna, a community organizer. Auke came to the Philippines as a development worker who, at the age of 23, decided to stop his work as a marine engineer to dedicate his life to the poor in the Philippines. Auke is married to an Ilongga, and jokingly refers to himself as FBI – full-blooded Ilonggo – because he speaks the language fluently.

Auke Idzenga (center) of the Negros NGO Alternative Indigenous Foundation, Inc. is declared BBC World Challenge 2010 winner by BBC World News presenter Zeinab Badawi and Shell Managing Director Malcolm Brinded in Amsterdam.

His staff calls Auke the visionary, and they are his builders. Auke told STARweek in an email, “It is team work and different people have different roles but nobody is more important than the other. This is reflected in our dealing with the technical people within AIDFI, even though the technicians come from the grassroots they receive relatively better salaries than the people within AIDFI who are on the management side. Also technicians have positions on our board and in the day-to-day management of the organization.”

According to Roy Innocencio, research and development supervisor, AIDFI started with agriculture technology training, assessment and organic farming, but decided to branch out into agricultural tech support in 1997, with the ram pump as the pioneering project. It went through three revisions before its present form.

The ram pump was invented in the 1770s in Europe, though its potential was never fully harnessed after it got waylaid by the entry of the coal-powered steam engine and later on by the diesel powered pumps.

AIDFI tapped and redefined the use of this forgotten technology.

Pio Tacdoro, Jr., head of the AIDFI-authorized ram pump installation team for Cebu, Bohol and Eastern Visayas, told STARweek that the ram pump has a “total benefit, is specially designed to benefit rural areas, is low maintenance, and almost zero-cost, save for the initial cost of the installation” – which can be as low as P11,000 depending on the size.

Tacdoro said the ram pump literally goes to great lengths in servicing communities, because it can cover as much as 200 meters, such as the latest installation in Brgy. Butong in Argao, Cebu, where residents enjoy 12,500 liters of water in only one catchment, 24 hours a day.

Foundation, Inc. showcases its innovative projects at its techno park

With the presence of the ram pump in these far-off communities, lives and perspectives have changed.

In Murcia, a watershed town located within the North Negros Forest Reserve and Mt. Kanlaon Natural Park, Ferdie Marcelo of Seacology, which collaborated with AIDFI in the setting up of the ram pumps there now benefiting 217 households, said in a testimonial, “The villages have set up their own forest guards who patrol the watershed regularly, mindful of its significance to the accessible water they now enjoy. About 3,000 seedlings of assorted indigenous species were planted around the ram pump sites, and the no-take zone is being enforced.”

Because of such positive impact, there is no shortage of work for AIDFI, says Innocencio.

At the time of STARweek’s visit to their office in Bacolod, which houses a cafe serving organic food, a warehouse and techno park, staff just received word of the foundation’s big win, but it was a regular working day for them, as more important work is expected in the days to come.

What will they do with their $20,000 cash prize from the BBC World Challenge? Auke says, “AIDFI is a near self-reliant NGO, working very, very hard to make both ends meet. The money we generate through many income generating projects is just enough to keep rolling. But there is never extra money to carry out further research or do or buy other important things.”

He adds, “We are planning to add another community organizer, and in our case, that will cost money since it’s investing in community work, without any return for us. We also want to finish our test tower for the hydraulic ram pump so that we can test and tune the pumps before they go to the communities. Then we have some long-time wishes such as repairing our cars and buying a few things for the office. But we spend the money very carefully and in a very transparent way.”

AIDFI is a stickler for transparency in its project dealings, and is known to turn down projects that insist on bribes, perhaps because it offers the best product around.

Apart from the ram pump, AIDFI has promoted and developed 15 other innovations, all showcased at their techno park. There’s the essential oil distiller for steam distillation of lemongrass, citronella, vitiver, eucalyptus, ginger, ylang-ylang, etc; the VIRYA windmill for electricity generation (it can produce up to 800 watts); the treadle pump or “tapak-tapak” pump which can deliver water to an overhead tank up to 15 meters high; the Biogas, which converts waste from pigs into methane gas that can be used for a cooking stove, electricity and bio-fertilizer, among other technologies that support agricultural production and help address the basic water, sanitation and energy needs of people.

And they will continue aggressively doing so, even if admittedly there’s not much support.

“Developing new things takes years. We don’t get any subsidy from the government. In Holland, groups doing work like AIDFI would receive subsidy, here in the Philippines nothing. So we are on our own,” said Auke.

“In the future we will continue to work on bigger sizes of ram pumps for irrigation purpose. We will also concentrate on expanding our international works, hitting two birds with one stone: earn for our group to expand the local works with technologies and, at the same time, share the expertise with other poor countries like Nepal, Colombia, Cambodia, East Timor, etc. We also have a list of many other technologies we want to adapt to local manufacturing to create employment. We never run out of ideas.”