Nova Somor, from the beginning of its activity, develops its low-temperature thermodynamic systems with the intent of providing solar machines for as many people as possible. The purpose is to replace polluting and energy-consuming machinery. It is in fact a solar water pump designed following the dictates of bio-economy of Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, made to last, not to pollute and do not consume energy storage, like the fossil fuels ones. Our solarpumps are designed and built to be easy to disassemble in order to recycle materials at the end of life. Furthermore all our solarpumps models are always equipped with a manual mechanical drive system. In this way the water resource is still available for the user, even at night or when it rains, or in case of failure. Imagine how important can be for a farmer who works in arid areas of South America, or the inhabitants of a remote village in Africa, to continue to pump water by hand while waiting for the arrival of technical assistance. All pumping systems based on electrically motorized technologies, even with power supplied from photovoltaic, or driven by endothermic engines, are lacking of emergency manual systems. When they break the water is no longer available, because it is in the machine’s availability, not of man. Not having an emergency manual activation system for an hydraulic pump is not a very clever thing even here, but at least here there is no risk to suffer thirst or to see animals die from lack of water or harvest be lost because of drought. But in certain parts of the world it is really important and sometimes vital that water remains always available, even if it costs a little hard work.
Some friends proposed us a some time ago to send only manually systems in Africa, without any kind of engine. This in order to reduce costs for African customers and to further limit the possibility of mechanical failures. But these friends are in good faith and uninformed. In many parts of Africa and in other parts of the world where water is scarce, there is a school dropout problem and the exploitation of labor of women for “water servants”. They are almost always children and women to raise water from wells and sources and bring it in the villages, in the gardens, fields and to the animals to be watered. So from our point of view manual systems must serve only in an emergency or to pump water maybe even at night when you need just a bit. But it should not be the only tool available, otherwise you exit the vicious circle of exploitation of child and female labor.
Recently we improved our manual system, increasing the effectiveness and introducing a simple system that allows you to disconnect the thermodynamic engine by pumping. So when we need to work manually you don’t need to drag the thermodynamic system, increasing fatigue, as in our first solarpumps. There is more attention, which is very important for the logic and for the values of our project.