Roundabout Water Solutions

The need for access to reliable, safe sources of water is more poignant than ever as SA’s load-shedding exacerbates our water access challenges. Roundabout Water Solutions (RWS) is a SA NGO that aims to mitigate our water crisis by giving rural primary schools access to reliable and safe drinking water. Although our constitution guarantees the right to access to water, to date, 19% of our rural population doesn’t have access to a reliable water supply and 33% don’t have basic sanitation services. While rural citizens suffer the most, over 26% of all schools (urban or rural), and 45% of clinics, have no water access either. According to the latest census, SA has witnessed a decline in access to water since 2014. Over the past 2 decades, RWS has installed over 900 merry-go-round water pumps, called PlayPumps®, in 8 provinces. These manual pumps give over 315,000 people – mainly children in remote and very hard-to-reach schools – free access to life-affirming water every single day! Consequently, 99% of our beneficiaries are previously disadvantaged, black children. Sadly, hundreds of these children attend schools with no access – or no reliable access – to water at their school. Often, they have to fetch water from rivers and dams, taking them out of school for quite some time. And, the water they collect from these sources, is often not safe for consumption causing numerous cases of intestinal infections from waterborne diseases. Our purpose is to improve access to clean water in rural areas and overcome the many socio-economic risks associated with not having reliable access to this precious resource by providing schools in need, and or communities, with our proprietary PlayPump®. Before it is placed on top of an approved borehole, the water quality must be approved by an accredited SANAS laboratory and certified safe for consumption. Only then can the water be manually pumped up and stored as the children play, ready for immediate use.