Vote for RP’s entry to BBC’s World Challenge 2010

Vote for RP’s entry to BBC’s World Challenge 2010

We would like to ask the help of every Filipino to support the country’s lone entry to the British Broadcasting Corp.’s (BBC) World Challenge 2010 title.

According to the BBC website the Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation Inc.’s (AIDFI) hydraulic ram pump is the Philippines’ only finalist entry to the contest.

Aside from the Philippines’ ramp pump, there are 11 other finalists from around the globe.

The hydraulic ram pump in Bacolod City supplies water to numerous remote villages in Negros and other parts of the country.

We urge all Filipinos to vote for the foundation before the November 12 deadline. To vote, simply log on to http://www.theworldchallenge.co.uk/2010-finalists-project08.php.

“Peru is ahead of the Philippines in the online voting but if Filipinos unite, we can create a tsunami of votes,” AIDFI chief executive officer Auke Idzenga said.

He also urged the people to share the link on their Facebook and other social networking accounts and urge their friends to vote.

Local government officials are also appealing to Filipinos worldwide to vote for AIDFI.

Idzenga said the hydraulic ram pump brings water to high elevations without fuel and electricity, powered only by water. Its model unit uses ordinary door hinges as the main moving part.

“Using the power of a river’s flow to literally push water uphill without any other energy input, it’s proving to be a boon for poor villagers living in mountainous regions,” BBC said on its website: http://www.theworldchallenge.co.uk/

The ram pump could save hours of backbreaking work carrying water and cash when expensive water pumps are repaired, it added.

The AIDFI has installed ram pumps in 170 villages, providing easy access to water for some 50,000 beneficiaries in the Philippines.

The Negros Occidental provincial government and various local governments have also used the AIDFI ramp pumps to bring water to remote barangays, the governor said.

A documentary about the work of AIDFI with hydraulic ram pumps filmed by the BBC was shown on BBC World News on November 6 and 7.