EMAS pump

The EMAS pump is a simple piston pump made of PVC with a marble as kickback valve. This pump is extremely cheap ($12) and therefore suitable as a family pump. The EMAS pump was developed by Wolfgang Buchner, member of the EMAS water and sanitation school in Bolivia. (link) Therefore not surprising that circa 20,000 EMAS pumps are in use in Bolivia with about 70,000 worldwide.

The benefit of a EMAS pump is the high water pressure in the supply pipe. This allows transporting the water (through a pipe or hose) to, let’s say, an elevated storage tank in the ridge of the roof of a house. In this way the water can be transported to the kitchen easily. This often means a considerable luxury.

The EMAS pump is a variation on a marble pump (for which we have demonstration model manual: Dutch English) and this could well be the most used type of pump on the WOT-terrain.

The WOT has also made a video on the construction of such marble pumps: