Options for rural water supply

This paper illustrates the importance of community involvement in rural water supply projects by examples taken from the authors work in Zimbabwe and South Africa. It further examines the options of commercially produced handpumps against pumps manufactured at village level, and the broader choices of borehole development, spring supply, and photovoltaic pumping (PVP). The principal objective of the Zimbabwe work is to assist rural farmers to become self sufficient in food production, and to improve nutrition levels through dry season vegetable production. However, the technology developed was also applied by the local communities to water supply. The projects in Southern KwaZulu Natal are concerned with village water supply. The Crisis Intervention Program (CIP) aimed to provide primary water supply to communities suffering from drought and lack of infrastructure.