First Lady Laura Bush Announces New Public-Private Partnership to Fund a Children’s Merry-Go-Round Pump to Produce Clean Water for Millions

September 28, 2006 - First Lady Laura Bush announced a $60 million public-private partnership between the U.S. government, PlayPumps International, the Case Foundation, and other partners to install PlayPumps water systems in Africa. The U.S. government, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, will contribute $10 million to the partnership over three years to support the provision and installation of PlayPumps water systems in approximately 650 schools, health centers, and HIV-affected areas in 10 sub-Saharan African countries.

As children play on the PlayPump, a simple, colorful merry-go-round, they produce energy to pump and purify badly needed clean drinking water in villages in Africa. Seven hundred PlayPumps, invented and manufactured in Africa, are already whirling around in South Africa, Mozambique, and Swaziland, and are supplying drinking water for more than one million people. The PlayPump’s ingenious design allows for the storage tank to carry advertising on its four sides: two sides for commercial messages and two sides for public-health messages, including HIV prevention. The proceeds from the ads then pay for the maintenance of the PlayPumps.

A lack of clean drinking water is one of the greatest health challenges that faces Africa today. Each year, millions of Africans die from preventable, water-borne illnesses. Dehydration makes adults and children weak and unable to fight disease, and up to half of the region’s population suffers from diseases related to unsafe drinking water and poor sanitation at any one given time. Public-private partnerships like this one help to answer these overwhelming health and development challenges by enabling the U.S. government and its private-sector partners to maximize their reach and effectiveness through jointly defined objectives and programmatic implementation.

Last revised: August 15, 2007