Through its Linkages for the Economic Advancement of the Disadvantaged project, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has supplied 600 rural households in Zimbabwe with low-cost drip irrigation kits for household gardens. The kits work by applying water, stored in a drum, slowly through plastic piping directly to the soil. This is said to result in a 70% saving in water compared to sprinkler irrigation. The main advantage, however, is the substantial saving of time and energy. Drip irrigation only requires one trip in up to four days to the well or borehole to fill the water container. This lessens the workload of the project target group: households, headed by orphans or their grandparents, that have been affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. A smaller system, developed by Dick Chapin in the 1970s, uses buckets instead of larger drums, that need to be filled twice a day. Studies in Kenya have shown that two of these kits can provide the water needed to produce enough vegetables to feed a family of seven during the dry season. The International Development Enterprises (IDE) estimates that a bucket drip irrigation kit consisting of a 20-litre bucket with enough tubing to irrigate a 25 m2 plot, will cost US$ 5 (EUR 5.1). A drum kit that includes a 200-litre drum that can irrigate 125 m2 will cost US$ 25 (EUR 25.60). Dick Chapin's company Chapin Watermatics, offers a bucket kit for US$ 25 (EUR 25.60) + postage.

Contact: USAID/Harare, Department of State, Washington, DC 20521-2180, fax: +1-263-4252478 ; IDE, ide@ideorg.org ; Chapin Watermatics Inc., chapin@gisco.net

Source: IRIN, 9 Sep 2002
AgBioIndia Mailing List, 21 Aug 2002

USAID Zimbabwe: http://www.usaid.gov/country/afr/zw/613-010.html ; IDE Tech Gallery - Drip Irrigation: http://www.ideorg.org/html/gallery/drip.html ; Chapin's Bucket Kit: http://www.chapindrip.com/Pages/gardenkit.html

Tags: water distribution