Rope and washer pumps allow extracting more water from wells than conventional hand pumps, and hence enable sufficient water to be pumped for domestic and productive activities like keeping livestock and gardening. NGOs in Zimbabwe such as the Mvuramanzi Trust and PumpAid are helping to reduce the costs of such techonology so that it can be afforded by poor rural families.

Photo by Stef Smits; Edited by Marinja Bongers