At a time when intricate solutions are praised for their complexity and their ostensive show of human genius, it’s easy to forget that sometimes, the most austere and obvious answers are the best. This is what Paul Polak recognized when he struck upon the idea of the treadle mill, a humble device that didn’t just irrigate water at a faster, more efficient rate; it was also a smart tool for aid and sure growth for the world’s poorest farmers. Ever since Polak, a 74-year old psychiatrist, began to actively promote the benefits of the treadle pump for developing nations in the 1980’s, he has received the support of international development monoliths, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the U.S. Agency for International Development, as well as the aid agencies of the Netherlands, Canada, Norway, and New Zealand.
But how could an unassuming contraption cause such a furor in the arena of international development, where bureaucracy, politicking, and jargon can sometimes overpower even the best of intentions? The answer is, once again, very simple: Polak’s treadle pump gives rise to concrete, unassailable results. The pump, a foot-powered irrigation device, has “enabled millions of farmers making USD1 a day in places such as Bangladesh and Zambia to produce bigger crops and earn more,” as The Seattle Times observed. Through his non-profit organization International Development Enterprises, Polak has distributed the pumps to farmers who happily came back to him with good news. “Treadle pumps do work,” said former USAID administrator Andrew Natsios, who saw the devices being used along the India-Bangladesh border. “Farmers told us that they were producing more food and making more money.”
Polak, however, has swerved away from traditional aid strategies in the distribution of his pumps – he doesn’t give them away for free, and instead, asks farmers to invest between USD25 to USD35 for a single pump. If farmers got them for free, he reasoned, they would value it less and use them indiscriminately, spelling lost opportunities for economic growth in the future. The scheme has so far worked beautifully, although certain difficulties have indeed been encountered. Aquifers have been depleted by overeager treadle-pumping, and in some parts of Bangladesh, arsenic-tainted water was drawn by the same foot-operated pumps. International Development Enterprises counteracts this by offering to test wells and provide cautionary measures and remedies.
Still, Polak looks ahead, and at the people he’s so far helped to help him weather such challenges. “What you hope for is that the good impacts far outweigh the bad,” he mused. “And I have no hesitation in saying, having talked to farmers that work with us, that the good outweighs the bad in everything we’ve done.” The truth can’t get any simpler than that.
Source: Doctor’s irrigation device helps rural poor harvest prosperity (The Seattle Times)
