Rope pumps: a simpler solution

When handpumps are out of action, communities revert to traditional sources.

Credit: WaterAid / Jon Spaull

In remote areas of Mozambique many rural communities struggle to maintain Afridev handpumps, the preferred technology in many developing countries.

People living in poverty hundreds of miles from the nearest town find it nearly impossible to get hold of, or afford, the necessary spare parts. WaterAid research has shown that only 10% of Afridevs are mended within a week. This can have dire health consequences as most communities with a broken pump revert to collecting drinking water from risky sources such as unprotected traditional wells, swamps or rivers.

Some take off the handpump and fetch water with a bucket and rope. This exposes them to the risk of potentially fatal water-related diseases such as typhoid and cholera.

A newly installed rope pump.

Credit: WaterAid / Andrew Cook

To get round the spare parts problem, WaterAid Mozambique has been piloting the use of simple rope pumps in its projects since early 2003.

The most common problem in a rope pump is a broken rope, and even in the remotest areas rope is fairly to easy to find and cheap enough for communities to afford.

WaterAid's pilot has been well received by the government and Mozambique's National Department of Water is now carrying out a feasibility study into rolling out this technology nationwide.

The official recognition of the spare parts problem in remote areas is a big step forward. Prior to 2003 WaterAid Mozambique had been offering poor rural communities the option of setting up protected wells with a windlass and bucket, so that the only spares they would need to source when problems arose would be readily accessible buckets or rope.

However, despite WaterAid evidence that these were preferred by the community and more easily sustained, government policy changed in 2002 disallowing their use in future.

Fatima, Adija and Albertina collecting water from a protected well with a bucket and windlass.

Credit: WaterAid / Jon Spaull

In the face of the new policy, WaterAid quickly needed another technology to offer that was easy to maintain.

Enter the rope pump - a technology not previously heard of in Mozambique, but used successfully by WaterAid in remote areas of Madagascar. While not quite as simple as the protected wells, rope pumps are streets ahead of handpumps when it comes to sourcing spare parts and therefore more likely to provide lasting supplies of clean drinking water for years to come.

There was no history of rope pumps in Mozambique so WaterAid was breaking new ground with this development, and had to work quickly to build up the necessary expertise. Earlier this year WaterAid Mozambique designed and ran a training course in the installation, operation and maintenance of rope pumps.

To begin with WaterAid imported the pumps from Madagascar, but is now contracting a private company to make the pumps locally.

Rope pumps are breaking new ground in Mozambique.

Credit: WaterAid / Andrew Cook

As with any new technology, it will be important to closely supervise the pumps, visiting communities regularly to ensure that they function well and that communities are confident in carrying out the required maintenance.

Fifty more rope pumps will be installed by WaterAid this financial year, 40 of which will have been manufactured locally.

The possible government rollout of this technology would boost this figure into the thousands, which would be a significant step forward in tackling the sustainability of water projects across Mozambique.