Determinants of hand-pumped borehole functionality: preliminary evidence from Ethiopia, Malawi and Uganda

Around 25% of handpumped-boreholes (HPB) in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are non‐functional at any time (Foster et al., 2019). The UPGro Hidden Crisis project conducted interdisciplinary assessment of factors that control HPB functionality in SSA. The project developed a tiered approach to define and measure functionality (Bonsor et al. 2018). The approach was used to select 150 HPBs on which to conduct forensic assessments in Ethiopia, Malawi and Uganda to unravel the factors governing HPB failure and success. Here we present preliminary analysis of the survey 2 dataset (UPGro, 2022), finding that hydrogeology, rising main condition, borehole (BH) design and hand-pump (HP) cylinder placement all play a role in functionality outcomes.