Copyright 1996

parts of Africa, rainfall is a very unreliable  
the development of power sources for water  
provider of such water For example, in  
pumping (Hofkes and Visscher, 1986), for  
Zimbabwe, Mupawose (1984) states that  
many people in rural Africa the use of human  
unreliable rainfall and the incidence of mid-  
energy remains the only practical option  
season drought represent the single most  
(Lambert and Faulkner, 1991) In recent years  
critical uncertainty facing the Zimbabwean  
there have been significant improvements in  
farmer today  
the design of handpumps for community use  
 
However, community water points still suffer  
While staple foods such as maize and nee  
breakdowns and attempts to remedy this,  
produced during the rainy season can be  
through community managed pump  
stored for consumption in the dry season, the  
maintenance schemes, are still far from  
same is not true of vegetables and fruit which  
universally successful  
are essential for good nutrition Since the early