The concept of Village Level Operation and Maintenance Management in relation to communal handpumps has gained wide acceptance in the rural water sector.
Difficulties with the introduction of VLOM have called into question a number of inherent assumptions in the concept relating to the user community, the supporting environment and technology choice.
Of particular importance is the assumption that introducing and supporting VLOM is an easier task for government than running a centralized maintenance service.
Perhaps the greatest lesson is that there are currently no ‘off-the-shelf’ solutions which can bypass the need for effective government institutional community water point support.
Recently there have been attempts to involve the private sector, not only in selling spares and handpump repairs, but also in local pump sales and installation.