3D printing has been used to mend pipes after the Nepal earthquake, and NGOs believe the technology could radically change the speed and cost of humanitarian aid

At noon on 17 September, a small printer resting on the wing of a Land Rover parked in a Nepalese valley finally ceased its quiet whirring.

The fruit of its labours – a bright blue plastic cylinder 10cm long and 4cm wide – may not have been much to look at, but its creation was enough to delight Andrew Lamb. It could also transform the way the world responds to humanitarian disasters.

The previous day, Lamb and a colleague from the technology-focused NGO Field Ready had visited a camp in Bahrabise, central Nepal, where 200 families left homeless by the earthquakes in April and May were still stranded.

They noticed that many of the water pipes flown in as part of the relief effort were missing fittings and washers, leaving them leaking or badly patched with plastic bags, gaffer tape or even bicycle tyre inner tubes.

That night Lamb’s co-worker, Mark Mellors, spent 45 minutes designing a water fitting on his laptop. The next morning, they drove back to the camp, connected the computer to a 3D printer powered by the battery of their Land Rover – and waited.

After two hours, the printer was done and the fitting ready.

“We put it on the pipe and, hey presto, it worked,” says Lamb, who is Field Ready’s engineering adviser.

“The hairs on the back of your neck stand up because you realise that you’re on to something here. Everybody standing around watching us – the water engineers, the local partner, the chap from Oxfam, the local social committee – were just watching, going, ‘This makes sense. This is what we need’.”

Not only had Lamb and Mellors solved the problem of the leaking pipes, they had also proved that 3D printers can be used on the ground in disaster relief.

“We were thrilled because it’s one of our proofs of concept: this idea of making useful things in camps for internally displaced people [IDP] is fundamental,” says Lamb.

“It was the first time – at least that we’re aware of – that this has been done: that you 3D print a sort of proper water fitting, rather than having to make an improvised one, in an IDP camp.

“It’s that process of identifying the need, doing the design and then printing it out and fitting it out – and doing all that in less than 12 hours in a remote area. It’s a pretty important step forward, I think, for the use of this kind of technology.”



Although some NGOs are already using 3D technology, Lamb hopes that the big aid agencies will one day deploy 3D printers with their emergency response teams. The hardware, he argues, is portable, cheap – the printer Field Ready used in Bahrabise cost about $600 (£400) – and can simplify logistics and supply chains. What’s more, 3D printing is only the first step: Lamb can foresee a time when technology will dramatically reduce the amount of kit that aid agencies need to take into disaster areas.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The blue fitting on a water pipe in Bahrabise IDP camp in Nepal.

“We’re also looking at using laser cutters to cut inch-thick wood to make structural components, using local injection moulding manufacturers and funky technologies like Polyfloss, which is a candyfloss-like material made from recycled plastic,” he says.

“We’re also eventually looking at using metal 3D printers to make spare parts for Toyota Land Cruisers. No longer are we going to have Land Cruisers not in action because we can’t get spare parts; no longer are we going to have concerns over [Kathmandu] airport’s runway being destroyed by all the big aircraft flying buckets and blankets in, because you’d be able to make buckets and blankets locally.”

According to Lamb, the potential financial savings on storage and transportation are huge. In Haiti, where Field Ready has been working, a 10 cent umbilical cord clamp costs $1. Ninety percent of the cost is logistics and getting the clamp from China, where it is made, to the Caribbean.

“We are pretty convinced that even if we can make a 40%-50% saving on the cost of logistics, you’re talking about freeing up between $5bn and $7bn a year,” he says.

“But to do that, we would need wide-scale adoption of the innovation, which is what we’re interested in pursuing with the response in Nepal.”

To speed up the process, Field Ready is collaborating with World Vision on an innovation lab in Nepal. It is also working on a supplies catalogue for aid agencies and posting its designs online so that anyone with a 3D printer can download them.

Catherine Green, World Vision’s operations manager for its Nepal earthquake response, says aid agencies need to do much more to exploit affordable technological breakthroughs such as 3D printing.

“We are seeing an increase in the frequency and intensity of both natural and man-made disasters, meaning that humanitarian organisations are being stretched to respond to more and more emergencies,” she says.

“If we as humanitarian organisations want to continue to be able to meet the needs of the most vulnerable communities that we are mandated to serve, then we need to start to do things differently: we need to innovate.”



Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘We need to start to do things differently: we need to innovate’: NGO staff and local people wait for the 3D fitting to emerge.

Lamb, who returned to Nepal this month to find the water fitting still working well, says Field Ready has a business plan every bit as innovative and disruptive as its inventions.

“One of the things that we’re very keen on is that we essentially do ourselves out of a job,” he says.

“It’s probably one of the first things you learn when you’re at school and you start learning about charity and there’s this basic thing that what you should be doing is not just giving a man a fish and all that rubbish … And then there’s a phase where you think that’s naive and the world doesn’t work that way.”

It turns out, however, to be true. If aid agencies want to buy products from Field Ready or sub-contract them, then all well and good, says Lamb.

“But what we’d really like to see is the major aid agencies adopting this technology themselves. We’re not being precious about the existence of our organisation. What we want to ensure is that the innovation is successful because we think it can significantly improve the effectiveness of disaster response.”