On Farm Performance of Manual Pumps

Abstract

This paper describes the on farm performances of three manually operated pumps widely used in Bangladesh namely, twin treadle pump, rower pump and No. 6 hand pump. Discharges from the treadle pump, rower pump and No. 6 hand pump at a head of 2.5 m were 0.66, 0.50 and 0.41 l/s respectively. Power input to the Rower pump and No. 6 Hand pump were 10% and 40% higher, respectively than that of the treadle pump at a head of 3.5 m. Treadle pump had the highest efficiency of 45% while the rower pump and the No. 6 hand pump had 38% and 25% efficiency, respectively. BCR values were 2.69, 1.83 and 1.17 respectively for the treadle pump, rower pump and No. 6 hand pump. The costs of lifting per m³ water were Tk. 6.46, Tk. 8.55 and Tk. 9.85 for the treadle, rower and No. 6 hand pump respectively. The overall performance of the twin treadle pump was better than rower and No. 6 hand pump up to a suction lift of 6 m. The No. 6 hand pump is not suitable for irrigation purpose because of its very low discharge and high power requirement.