Who was Paul Van Beers?

Paul Van Beers was the Founder of the Bluepump and Co-Founder of the Fairwater Foundation.

In 2003, Paul had an idea to develop a handpump with low-cost maintenance. With this idea, Paul hoped to provide African communities with a durable water pumping system that African communities could sustain locally.

As Project Manager of the Rural Water Development (RWD) project in Kenya, Paul had the opportunity to suggest improvements, given his long-term practical experience in both Burkina Faso and Mozambique, towards the Volanta Pump, considered the most reliable handpump at the time.

Based on this experience, Paul decided to develop and trial a new, simple, and reliable handpump, utilizing the same advantages of the Volanta Pump but avoiding many of the Pumps disadvantages.

In 2008, Paul Van Beers Co-Founded the Fairwater Foundation with Syrayya Gok, aimed at beginning rehabilitation projects in Africa and coordinating Research and Development (R&D) towards developing his new handpump.

In 2020, Paul Van Beers tragically passed away, at the age of 70, due to cancer-related illnesses.

The Origin Of The Bluepump

Initially, the pilot handpump model was named ‘Afripump,’ but confusion with the Village Level Operation Maintenance (VLOM) ‘Afridev’ handpump led users to address Paul Van Beers’ handpump as ‘Bluepump’ due to the handpump’s color. With this intervention, Paul renamed the handpump to Fairwater ‘Bluepump.’

Following field testing in Mozambique in 2008 and Northern Kenya in 2010 by Oxfam, the Bluepump design proved very reliable in the harsh local environment. In 2010, the first Fairwater Bluepump model was finalized.

Throughout the 2010s, Paul Van Beers modified the Bluepump design frequently because of his vision and passion for innovation.

Who is Geraldo Vallen?

Growing up in Harmelen, near Utrecht, Geraldo Vallen founded a production company before deciding to begin his mission to help the less fortunate around the world.

In 1990, Geraldo Vallen founded Czar, a film and photography production company, based in Amsterdam. In 1996, Czar’s work was nominated at the Cannes International Advertising Festival, winning the Palme d’Or for best worldwide production company. At one point, Czar had offices in Amsterdam, Milan, Cape-town, and Cologne, reaching international recognition.

"The world is a lot bigger than this little country of ours" - Geraldo Vallen.

After deciding to shift his attention from production, Geraldo Vallen founded Join the Pipe in 2008. Join the Pipe is an Amsterdam-based Dutch company that sells sustainable water bottles made from CO2-negative sugarcane to promote drinking tap water worldwide. Jointhepipe’s vision aims to build a community of tap water drinkers worldwide as they export their water bottles worldwide, mainly within the hospitality industry.

Shortly after starting Join the Pipe, Geraldo Vallen met Paul Van Beers, who had been installing handpumps for NGOs for several years. After Paul's passing, since 2020, Geraldo Vallen has continued Paul's legacy by acquiring the Fairwater Foundation and the Bluepump. He has continued distributing Bluepumps in Sub-Saharan Africa within the Join the Pipe Foundation.