This too is beyond the means of handpump caretakers in the village. Plunger seal and O ring Experience has shown that the nitrile rubber plunger seal and footvalve O ring actually absorb water over time, and expand. This makes their removal difficult, especially in the case of removing the footvalve. It is recommended by Afridev manufacturers that the plunger seal, bearing bushes and footvalve bobbins and O ring be replaced annually as a preventive maintenance strategy. However, the issue of how the spare-parts kits are going to be supplied to the village caretaker has not been fully addressed.
Difficulties arise when donors try to supply spare parts at the village level.
Many thousands of handpump caretakers, many of them women, have been trained to maintain handpumps like the Afridev. But this pump still has its problems. Experience to date suggests that they cannot. Most water supply projects have convenient showpiece communities not far from project headquarters where groups of highly trained women impress visitors by whipping out the rods and changing the plunger seal in textbook fashion. What is less well known, but just as common, is that VLOM handpumps have failed in remote rural areas because problems have arisen beyond the means of the trained caretakers to repair.