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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.

To get around 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.