A farmer demonstrates the use of a foot pump manufactured by IDE. Pic:IDE

THE International Develop-ment Enterprise (IDE) plans to continue its operations in Myanmar through next May by advising rural residents on projects and helping supply dry areas with water for irrigation, said U Hla Tun, the monitoring and evaluation manager of IDE-Myanmar.

“One of our projects focuses on providing advice for rural residents. If they want to start a community improvement project we will give instructions,” he said, adding that the project was limited to Thazi in Mandalay Division and Yezagyo in Magwe Division.

He said another ongoing project involves distributing foot pumps to areas with little water to help farmers irrigate their crops.

“For example, some farmland in Shan State is located on hills and it can be very difficult to get water from valleys to the hilltops,” U Hla Tun said. “Our foot pumps help farmers get water into these areas.”

He said a pump can be operated by a single person using their foot to build pressure to move water along a pipeline, and a setup with six branches from the main pipe can provide sufficient water to 25 square feet of farmland.
“One pump costs about K45,000 and we hope to sell 2000 of them during the October to May project period,” U Hla Tun said.

He said IDE will distribute the pumps in townships in Bago and Yangon divisions, and in the city of Mawlamyine, because some parts of these region have little water.

The enterprise will also install drip irrigation systems in some townships using equipment imported from IDE-India.

“The equipment costs about K150,000 to K200,000 and can be used anywhere in the country. But we will wait until we get feedback from users before we start ordering many of them from India,” U Hla Tun said.

US-based IDE distributed foot pumps to 25 townships in Myanmar in 2004, the first year it worked in the country. It expanded the project to 62 townships in 2005, 86 in 2006 and 103 this year. The enterprise runs a factory in South Dagon township that produces 700 pumps a week.

IDE, which had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Water Resources Utilisation Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation to carry out its projects in Myanmar for three years, has applied to extend the MoU for another three years.