Handpumps bring water to rural African communities, but many are broken – study models how best to maintain them

In rural sub-Saharan Africa, access to clean drinking water often depends on a simple technology: the handpump.

These manually operated systems pump water out of the ground for more than 184 million people. Yet despite their importance, research has found that at least 100,000 handpumps out of the 500,000 to 1.3 million in use in sub-Saharan Africa are not functioning.

This is a hidden crisis. It means rural people are not getting water, not because new infrastructure is needed and not being built, but because existing water systems aren’t working.