USAID to replace inefficient water pumps

USAID launchs ‘electricity for water’ programme in west Punjab, will enable farmers to save money and electricity.

ISLAMABAD: The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has launched an ‘electricity for water’ programme in west Punjab which will enable farmers to save money and electricity.

The technique allows the farmers to save $7.7 million and 45 megawatts of power annually. The programme will replace inefficient tube well water pumps with more energy-efficient ones. Many of the current pumps operate at only 30 per cent efficiency.

The programme is one of the six activities under the US Quick Impact Energy programme that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced last year to help alleviate Pakistan’s power shortages.

USAID’s programme will replace 11,000 pumps and manufacturers of the pumps guarantee at least 20 per cent energy savings. To help farmers replace their pumps, USAID is subsidising 50 per cent of the cost of the new pumps.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 2^nd, 2010.