Wells 101: How Many People Does a Well Serve?

This is a question we get a lot! And the answer is, it depends.  

We build two main types of wells: hand pump wells and electric pump wells (we call them “electric wells”).  

Hand pump wells are installed in areas that don’t have ready access to electricity. The groundwater here is shallow enough that a human can actually pull the weight of the water using just their strength (and maybe the strength of a friend). This is important, because water is really quite heavy! A “linear foot” of water in a 4-inch pipe weighs just under 5 ½ pounds. If a girl is pumping water from a well 100 feet deep, she is lifting more than 50 pounds of water – plus the hardware in the well! So she’s easily lifting 95-100 pounds with every single pump. (And you thought your workout was hard!) Because of the time needed to pump water by hand, a hand pump can serve 250-350 people each day.  

Every time this girl pushes this handle, she lifts more than 90 pounds of weight!

However, for villages that are on the electric grid, there’s an even better option. Electric wells reach water in deep aquifers more than 300 feet below the ground surface. An electric pump pulls the water to the surface, filling a giant storage tank that is outfitted with taps. The water is readily available, 24 hours a day, to whoever needs it! And because the electric pump can pull water so much faster than a person can, the well can serve up to 1,000 people every day.   

Electric wells produce a LOT of water!

So whether someone is in a village with electricity, or not... with deep groundwater, or shallow... if they need clean water, there is a solution! And we work hand in hand with local partners to make sure that every village gets the best solution possible for their water needs.