The Mark 2 pump’s impact is “felt to this day throughout Africa, Asia and Latin America… By 1987, annual production had reached 200,000. With exports to other countries in Asia, as well as to Africa and Latin America, the India Mark II was well on its way to becoming the best-known deep-well hand pump in the world.” Between 1977 and 1997, a million pumps had been manufactured in India.

At pointReturn, all our water needs had been catered for by our trusty windmill. But there have been minor scares when the mill stood still during long windless spells. We realised we were vulnerable and a Mark 2 pump was installed primarily for drinking water [but we plan to use it to irrigate our vegetable patches as well.] A new 4″ dia borewell was drilled to 100′. Thanks to our rain water harvesting efforts over the last three years, water was found at 40′ – in the month of June, during summer. A 1.25′ dia suction pipe of 60′ has been let into this borewell and the pump connected to it. Thus the pump stands submerged 20′ [ie, 60-40]. We can pump for long without running dry. The pump has improved our senses of security and self-sufficiency.

A small group of people wishing to go back to the land to try living a least-impact life must consider a Mark 2 pump installation as an essential feature of their design. It will force you to spend water frugally because though it’s trouble free and reliable, the mechanical effort needed, raises your awareness of water’s preciousness. If you are an inventive handyman, the pump may be adapted to be driven by wind. There is also a solar electric driven version of the pump. If your homestead is developed with a strong rain water harvesting focus, things will get better and easier all around over time.

While publishing GoodNewsIndia I met a man who had grown grains, vegetables and trees in a hectare with just a well and without electricity. From that Story: “I deepened the ditch, and built a lined well over it. I drew all the water by hand, for the land and our home– about forty pitchers in a day. There has been no electricity on this land till two years ago. Not that power-lines didn’t run in these parts, but I didn’t want it.” So the human being is capable of greater energy productivity than he has been led to believe; a Mark 2 pump can greatly leverage that productivity.