The use of water power to generate electricity for daily life and production has become widespread. However, for teacher Trần Đình Huân, who has innovatively replaced fuel with water power to pump water uphill, this is indeed a bold idea.On an early day in February 2003, while standing next to a small hydropower machine produced in China by a stream, teacher Trần Đình Huân (currently working at the Department of Education and Training in Kon Tum) had a thought: Why not create a water-powered pump to reduce costs for irrigating coffee, simply by adding a pulley and a belt?
What started as an idea quickly turned into action. From that day onward, he began working on it. First, to gather enough technical specifications for manufacturing and production, he traveled to Ho Chi Minh City to purchase teaching materials on hydropower. Whenever he had free time, he would go online to collect additional information.
Transforming an idea into a tangible machine was challenging, but creating a machine from the design drawings proved even more difficult. When he took the drawings to have the product fabricated, everyone doubted his success. With the help of a former student who was a mechanic, after more than a week of disassembling, assembling, refining, and machining, his pump was finally complete. Overjoyed and forgetting to eat, he transported the machine to the fields for a trial run. A jet of water shot out like a fire hose over ten meters, causing him and the young helpers to cheer in excitement.
According to Huân’s calculations, this water-powered machine, placed at a height of 2 meters above a waterfall with a suction pipe diameter of 30 cm, can pump water 500 meters away through a 5 cm diameter pipe and lift it over 20 meters high. With these specifications, it can pump 400 cubic meters a day and night for irrigation (equivalent to a 22 horsepower diesel pump).
The Central Highlands is a key area for coffee and pepper production, characterized by a dense network of streams and rivers with relatively steep gradients, making it ideal for this type of pump. Each family can own a water-powered pump for only 1.5 million VND. The machine weighs about 35 kg, has a simple structure, and is easy to transport and repair.
