Practica Foundation

The design of new products and improvements to adapt existing technologies to a specific local context are at the origin of PRACTICA Foundation. We assess and develop affordable water and sanitation technologies with a high potential to improve livelihoods in low-income countries, and make sure that these technologies are made available locally.

The Rotary Jetting Kit for humanitarian and emergency assistance

In addition to creating our own innovations, we provide technical design, prototyping and testing services to a number of organizations and enterprises. For example, we design and improve a range of solar powered irrigation pumps for UK-based Futurepump Ltd, and we cooperate with Médicins Sans Frontières (MSF) and Groundwater Relief to create software for the capture of groundwater data. Our role is that of innovator and disseminator – our aim is always to contribute to the creation of new solutions that can eventually be adopted and supported by private enterprises.

Applied research is carried out in our workshops and experimentation fields in the Netherlands, Madagascar and India, where we test, compare and improve the performance and applicability of a range of technologies. We focus on affordable technologies that can be maintained and repaired locally.

The Sunflower SF2 pump, produced by Futurepump, designed by PRACTICA.

Our research efforts have led to a steady stream of innovations, such as the Volanta handpump, manual drilling kits, solar irrigation pumps, low-pressure irrigation systems, modular solar water supply systems, and more recently a number of smartphone apps for improved data management in the groundwater development sector.

Screenshots of the dril log and geophysics modules of the Drillers’ Toolbox. Practica creates smartphone apps in-house.