Water pumps are used in a number of locations, to allow water to travel from one place to another. They are found in the water supplying, moving water from storage facilities to peoples’ homes, and can be found in smaller appliances such as air conditioning and refrigeration systems. Power showers are found in many homes, and rely upon the aid of powerful water pumps to carry a lot of water at high pressure. There are a number of different methods used by manufacturers to pump water.
Positive displacement pumps work by taking in a certain amount of water from their input source, and pushing it out into a pipe for example. This displaces the water in the output pipe, and gradually moves the water along. This is an effective method of pumping water, and can be found in a number of locations. Reciprocating type pumps work in a similar way, but instead of letting water flow into the device, they create a vacuum and suck the water up. The water is then discharged into the output pipe.
Many years ago, simple pumps were used to aid farming. Windmills or watermills created the power to move the water onto fields. This helped water crops, and could also aid irrigation. If a field was flooding, a simple water pump could help remove surface water.
Water pumps are used in many developing countries as the only way of extracting water from the ground to drink. In Africa many villages rely on their hand pumps, as they have no other means of obtaining safe water. The water is pumped out of the soil, and is often polluted and can potentially spread disease and infection. This is one of the main causes of death in third world countries. Many charities and aid workers aim to install hand pumps that are connected to safer sources of water such as ground water, to avoid the possibility of people drinking contaminated water. The work they do can make a huge difference, and is a relatively cost-effective method of distributing water in places like this.
There are many water pumps in place that help us live a normal life in the United Kingdom. We will most likely never encounter a water pump more sophisticated than one we might use in a fish tank or swimming pool. But even these pumps work using the same principles as the more advanced pumps that allow our water system to work efficiently.