Cross flow turbines from manufacturers in developed couties are expensive for poor ecionomies and import costs are often to high to develop micro/Mini hydro sites. As early as 1975 the cross flow turbine was promoted by developing agencies as a easy to built turbine which can be built locally by a simple workshop. 

many different designes have been built and often failed for same reasons. Nevertheless many workshops and technicians and engineers accumularted experiences and moved up on a learning curve. Simple turbines have proven to rotate and fullfill the purpose, however often they did not have a long live time, did not produce the output required. Often investment costs can not be hugh and low cost design make projects possible. Actually frequent repairs may be not a problam as long as skilled technicians or local manufacturers can do it.