Here's what people are saying about the PlayPump® Water System:
"It is wonderful to see the children having so much fun on these roundabouts (PlayPumps) while at the same time bringing an essential service to the community."
Hennie Wesseling, TNT Director
"I witnessed how a simple water pump can transform a village and give its children a chance to thrive."
Jay-Z, Def Jam Records CEO and rap artist
"Water is intimately linked with education and gender equality. Girls who have to spend time gathering water for the family tend not to be in school. And where schools have sanitation, attendance is higher; especially for girls."
Kofi Annan, United Nations Secretary General
"Water is essential to life and we are committed to finding solutions that help alleviate its scarcity in some of our neediest communities. The PlayPump concept offers communities and schools an excellent way to access fresh water."
Dave Govender, Enviornmental Affairs Manager, Coca-Cola Southern and East Africa
"Partnerships are essential if we are to help Mozambique’s education and culture sector, as well as the sector of water and sanitation, to get back on their feet after so many years of devastating war."
Angela Van Rynbach, Country Director, United Nations World Food Programme
"Roundabout Outdoor is an example where the innovation and experience of a private sector firm is leveraged to deliver big results on the grassroots level. This is the type of project we aim to support through programs such as the Grassroots Business Initiative."
Richard Ranken, Director, International Finance Corporation Africa Department
"The aim is to bring water and sanitation to all our schools, and PlayPumps are an important step in that direction."
Hon. Aires Aly, Mozambique Education and Culture Minister
"We at the Ministry and the Department look forward to working with yourselves to uplift the lives of our people, particularly those in the rural areas, through this innovative project."
Hon. Ronnie Kasrils, MP, Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, South Africa
"By ensuring children have access to clean water, food and an education, we are giving the children of Mozambique the best possible chance of building a brighter and healthier tomorrow."
Angela Van Rynbach, Country Director, United Nations World Food Program
"This children’s roundabout (PlayPump) is really a unique and innovative solution to solve the water problems faced by rural areas."
Hennie Wesseling, TNT Director
"The PlayPumps … had tremendous social benefits by reducing the somewhat traditional and arduous burdens placed on women and children to collect and carry water. This task deprives many young women of the opportunity to complete their formal education."
Peter Waldron, Jeffares & Green Consulting Engineers
"Children have developed additional social skills by playing on a simple device they normally would never see. The provision of potable water means the children are well hydrated, which is an essential ingredient to effective learning. At some schools, small fruit and vegetable gardens have been created with the obvious benefit of added nutrition for developing children."
Peter Waldron, Jeffares & Green Consulting Engineers
"The need for water provision and playground equipment in Lesotho is great, so this unique children’s toy fulfills both demands simultaneously….Messages printed on the billboards that surround the water tank warn our women, young girls and children regarding the dangers of HIV/AIDS infection. A combination of these merits will have a significant impact on poverty reduction."
D.R. Phororo, Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Lesotho
"Over 50% of the world’s hospital beds are filled with patients suffering from water-related diseases. The World Health Organization estimates that by reducing by half, the proportion of people that lack access to safe water and adequate sanitation the world would save nearly $90 billion annually."
John F. Turner, Assistant United States Secretary of State
"We shall not finally defeat AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, or any of the other infectious diseases that plague the developing world until we have also won the battle for safe drinking water, sanitation and basic health care."
Kofi Annan, United Nations Secretary-General
"We believe that the PlayPump system, due to its practical, economic, and social viability, is a progressive and creative way to provide free fresh drinking water to rural communities." Gordon Torr, Global Creative Director, JWT
"With the PlayPump we can make children happy, reduce the workload for women, make a visible step forward in rural water development, and slow down the spread of HIV/AIDS." Gordon Torr, Global Creative Director, JWT
"We urge government departments, International Donor Agencies, NGO's and all stakeholders to motivate, and specify the installation of the PlayPump at schools, clinics and community centres, for the benefit of all concerned."
Gordon Torr, Global Creative Director, JWT
"The World Health Organization estimates that if everyone had access to basic water and sanitation services, the health sector would save more than US$11 billion in treatment costs, and people would gain 5.5 billion productive days each year due to reduced diarrheal disease."
Vanessa J. Tobin, Water, Environment and Sanitation, UNICEF
"All children have the right to clean water … and the right to play."
Children’s Charter of South Africa
"The….PlayPump can provide a whole community with clean water, with plenty left over for irrigation and crops….The PlayPumps….are backed by the South African government, the country’s former president Nelson Mandela, and the World Bank. Innovation such as this vital, because water really is the gift of life. "
Duncan Goose, Founder Global Ethics and One Water
"We are a poor school….no seesaws or exercise rings like the kind most children play with. Because of our water crisis, such things are not in our budget. But now the children have this merry-go-round, and both problems are solved."
Sylvia Nkambule, teacher in Swaziland
"Having the PlayPump has changed peoples’ lives here….Before they were having to walk a long way to collect water in wheelbarrows. Now, having access to water mans they can even grow vegetables. And the pump still works whether or not there is a power cut."
Nicole Cloete, who runs a school and home for 200 street children at Botshabelo, near Johannesburg, South Africa.
"….thank you very much [for] your life saver. The run about [PlayPump] that you have put in our plot have saved us. It saves as time and money that we do not have."
Patricia Mahlori Vuma, Winterveldt, in a letter to Roundabout Outdoor
"It is a life saver for our kids they love it so much. It keeps them away from the street and being near they played the whole day. I call it life saver because we used to walk far away to fetch some water, and we were using borehole water (PITS) and this water was not healthy for us."
Patricia Mahlori Vuma, Winterveldt, South Africa
"All community of Winterveldt came in here because this Run About (Roundabout) does not get dry. There is always water, when government’s pipe water finish, the whole community fetched water from Run About (roundabout)."
Patricia Mahlori Vuma, Winterveldt, South Africa
"…To respond to the words of our President Mr. Thabo Mbeki ‘a better life for all,’ this Roundabout has done just that … the Roundabout … is also helping to foster the ‘Community Spirit’ as the common denominator is playing while working."
Con Cloete, CEO, Botshabelo Community Development Trust, South Africa
"Because it is now from a positive premise there are more positive ‘spin offs’ such as, people are now starting to grow their own vegetables and gardens and are now taking more pride in their homes and surroundings because fetching water is no longer considered hard labor."
Con Cloete, CEO, Botshabelo Community Development Trust, South Africa
"…Because water is so much more easily accessible, it’s starting to have an effect on people’s attitude, towards cleanliness, health and basic hygiene. One can also see how the burden on the community has been lessened by their dispositions, in that they don’t look so burdened and tired any more."
Con Cloete, CEO, Botshabelo Community Development Trust, South Africa
"We used to get water from the well, now we get water from the pump. It was unhygienic to get water from the well. It was not good, it was not healthy and it was dangerous for the kids and us too."
Patricia Mahlori, Vuma, Winterveldt, South Africa
"The kids are happy too to play on the roundabout. They feel happy. When the just come back from school they just come and play."
Patricia Mahlori Vuma, Winterveldt, South Africa
"Your roundabout pumps are proving to be very popular in providing fun for the children and water for all."
Di le Roux, Administrator, Tumelong, Diocese of Pretoria Mission for Community Development
"….water [has] changed the image of our school and the learners’ views towards education. Life has a new meaning for them in Kulani Primary School."
Margaret Kekana, Kulani Primary School
"…the PlayPump has won further accolades from the World Bank and I see that as a vote of confidence for collaboration with the private sector for the benefit of children and their communities."
Jesper Morch, Representative, UNICEF
"It is now time to get to work and get as many PlayPumps installed in appropriate places accompanied with a package of interventions that provide information, and promotes and protects the health of children."
Jesper Morch, Representative, UNICEF
"South Africa has already installed 500 PlayPumps, which are more efficient, easier to use, and cheaper to run than wells with hand pumps."
New York Times Editorial, December 24, 2003