Solar pumping for rural water supply: life-cycle costs from eight countries

Although interest in solar water pumping has been steadily growing, misconceptions persist about the applicability and cost-effectiveness of such systems in remote settings. The primary barrier to wide scale adoption of solar water pumping is that policy makers and practitioners at the local, national and international levels lack valid and transparent information on performance in a broad range of contexts and of the full life-cycle costs. In an attempt to fill this information gap, this paper presents upfront and recurring costs from 85 rural solar water pumping schemes of various sizes that have been designed, constructed and supported by Water Mission in eight countries. The average life-cycle costs associated with the reviewed schemes were within and on the lower end of IRC WASHCost benchmark ranges for both piped water schemes and boreholes fitted with handpumps. These findings indicate solar pumping is a viable and cost-effective intervention for rural water supply.