Safe, adequate and sustainable supply of water is basic needs, and essential components ofrnsocioeconomic development of a given society. In relation to this, in Ethiopia, althoughrnconsiderable efforts have been made to improve and expand access to potable water supply,rnmany rural communities still suffer from lack of safe drinking water. Therefore, a great sectionrnof society still remained without access to safe, adequate and sustainable supplies of water.Thisrnstudy was conducted to assessing the functionality of hand pumps based rural water supply inrnKurmuk woreda, Benishangul Gumuz Regional state, Ethiopia.To achieve the objective of thernstudy, a total of 105 household heads were randomly selected and interviewed by using a semirnstructural questionnaire.Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected throughrnquestionnaire, focus group discussion participants, key interview informants and fieldrnobservations. In addition, different documents from secondary sources were reviewed.Therncollected data were analyzed using a descriptive statistics. The analysis attributed the nonfunctionality of schemes to different limiting factors like: weak performance of water committeernsince scheme management training were not provided in most cases and lacks working manuals;rnweak participation of women during hand pumps development; very limited in number andrnresponsibility share of women in water committees in most cases; community technicians andrnspare parts supply chain almost donâ€™t -existent in the study area. Majority of users do notrncontribute water fee for operational and maintenance (O&M) regularly; some hand pumps werernabandoned because of water quality problem and low yield as result of inappropriate siternselection and lack of supervision during construction; limited institutional support mainly fromrnworeda water resource office in terms of human, material and financial resources. Hence thernstudy calls for: adequate scheme management trainings along with support of necessary workingrnmanuals and directives for water committees (WCs); legal status of WCs should be ensured;rnwomen's decision making roles should be strengthened;WCs, local community techniciansrnshould be trained and necessary toolkits to be provided before scheme hand over to community.rnSimultaneously, to address problem of spare parts, Revolving Spare Parts Fund (RSPF) shouldrnbe established in woreda center; integrated feasibility study and construction/drillingrnsupervision should be conducted by appropriate professionals; institutional support of WoredarnWater Resource Development Office should be strengthened in terms of human, material andrnfinancial resources