A hand pump is a mechanical device operated hundreds of times a day by many different people. It will wear. The question is whether wear is caught during a weekly check or discovered when the pump stops.
The weekly check
Ten minutes, by a committee member, same day each week:
- Pump the handle twenty times. Note whether the effort has changed since last week.
- Check the water is clear, and does not smell or taste different.
- Look at the apron and drainage channel for cracks or standing water.
- Check the fence and gate, if there is one, and that animals are being kept off.
- Check the handle for excessive play or unusual noise.
- Write the date and what you found in a book kept by the committee.
The written record is what lets a mechanic diagnose quickly. "It has been getting harder for three weeks" is far more useful than "it broke today".
The monthly check
- Tighten all visible bolts on the pump head and stand.
- Clear the drainage channel and soakaway of silt and rubbish.
- Repair any cracks in the apron with cement. Water pooling on a cracked apron seeps back down the borehole and contaminates it.
- Check the concrete around the pump base has not separated from the apron.
- Count the maintenance fund and read the total to the committee.
The common faults, in order of likelihood
Worn cylinder seals or plunger. Symptom: the handle still moves freely but less water comes up, or it takes far more strokes. This is the most common fault and the parts are cheap. Ignored, it gets worse steadily.
Broken or disconnected pump rods. Symptom: the handle moves with almost no resistance and no water comes. Needs the rods pulling, which needs a mechanic and usually several people.
Worn bearings or a loose handle. Symptom: knocking, excessive play, grinding. Cheap to fix, and it damages other parts if left.
Cracked or corroded riser pipes. Symptom: water returns to the borehole between strokes, so it takes many strokes to restart. Requires pulling the pipes.
A cracked apron. Not a pump fault, but the most serious for water quality, because it lets contaminated surface water reach the borehole.
What can the committee do without a mechanic?
Tighten bolts, repair the apron and drainage, clear the soakaway, replace a worn handle grip, maintain the fence. Anything involving lifting rods or pipes needs a trained mechanic and the right lifting tools. A committee that attempts it without them usually drops something down the borehole, which turns a small repair into a very expensive one.
The maintenance fund
Collect monthly from every user household, at a rate the committee sets and publishes. Hold it in the same three-lock box discipline a savings group uses, and read the balance aloud at every meeting.
The fund needs to be able to cover a full set of seals and rods without an appeal. A committee that has to fundraise after a breakdown will have the pump down for weeks, and in those weeks people go back to the river and stop paying.
How do we know the water is still safe?
Visual checks catch the obvious. For actual water quality, the district water office can test, and should be asked to after any contamination risk: flooding, a nearby latrine collapse, an animal falling in, or a repair that opened the borehole. Any repair that exposes the inside of the borehole should be followed by chlorination before normal use resumes.
Keep the model number
Write the pump make, model and installation date in the committee book and on a plate at the pump. Spare parts are model-specific, and a committee that cannot name its pump wastes weeks establishing what to buy.