Xylem’s Treadle Pump Aims to Provide Sustainable Solution for Under-Represented Water Markets

March 14, 2013

Xylem Inc., a global water technology company, has launched an innovative treadle pump called Saajhi, the first product in Xylem’s planned “Essence of Life” portfolio.

Amy Richardson

Xylem Inc., a global water technology company, has launched an innovative treadle pump called Saajhi™, the first product in Xylem’s planned “Essence of Life” portfolio. Essence of Life is a sustainable business model from Xylem that is designed to address the fundamental needs of those living at the base of the economic pyramid and create solutions to help them grow.

“Xylem is known for our industry-leading technology to address the most complex water issues around the world,” said Keith Teichmann, Xylem’s director of innovative networks and marketing, in an official company announcement. “As part of our ongoing commitment to sustainability, leveraging our global footprint and experience creating products based on the needs of our customers, we’ve launched this initiative to address an under-represented segment of the water market. There is a real daily need to overcome a very fundamental water challenge—getting water where it’s needed to efficiently irrigate small-scale crops to help appreciably improve annual crop yield. Addressing this issue will help us to build new markets for our products and those of our partners.”

Designed to best meet the needs of smallholder farmers who grow their own food in emerging markets, Saajhi (Hindi for “companion”) represents an innovative global, OEM-engineered solution for rural water management needs, Xylem says. The introduction of the Saajhi pump is the result of extensive field research, including interviews and field tests with smallholder farmers across India, Africa, Latin America, and Asia.

One of Xylem’s hybrid value chain partners evaluating the Saajhi pump in the field. Photo courtesy of Xylem.

The Saajhi treadle pump requires no electricity and is field-serviceable, with a minimal number of removable parts and no required tools. Taken together, Xylem says these critical design aspects meet the communicated desires of rural farming communities, the citizen sector organizations who support them, and Xylem’s agri-business partners.

Keith Teichmann presented the Essence of Life plan during the “Modernizing Agricultural Water Management” session at this week’s Asia Water Week, hosted by the Asian Development Bank in Manila, Philippines.

For additional information, and to download the Essence of Life white paper, visit www.EOLRippleEffect.com.