A kind of pump once common all over the world was a manual water pump. It was commonly installed above community water wells in the days before water supplies. In parts of the British Isles it was often called the parish pump.
Because pitcher pump water is drawn directly from the ground, it is more prone to contamination. If this water is not filtered and purified, its consumption can lead to gastrointestinal diseases or other waterborne diseases. A notorious case is the Broad Street cholera epidemic in 1854. At the time, it was not known how cholera was transmitted, but Doctor John Snow suspected that water was contaminated and that the handle of the pump public he suspected was kidnapped; the epidemic then calmed down.
Modern, hand-operated community pumps are considered the most sustainable and cost-effective option for drinking water supply in resource-poor areas, often in rural areas of developing countries. A hand pump opens access to deeper groundwater that is often unpolluted and also improves the safety of a well by protecting the water source from contaminated buckets. Pumps such as the Afridev pump are designed to be easy to build and install, and easy to maintain with simple parts. However, the scarcity of spare parts for these types of sanitary pumps in some parts of Africa has diminished their usefulness for these areas.
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