Treadle Pump

In Polak's approach to solving poverty, poor people are treated as rational customers rather than as recipients of charity. Among other things, that means IDE develops only products that will pay for themselves in the first year through the buyer's increased productivity. One of the best examples is IDE's $25 treadle pump, a human-powered pump that enables a family working two to six hours a day to irrigate a half-acre of vegetables during the dry season and earn an average of at least $100 a year after expenses.