Multiple-use water services to advance the millennium development goals

This research report (IWMI Research Report No 98) by Barbara van Koppen, Patrick Moriarty and Eline Boelee presents results of the project “Multiple use water services” (MUS). This project takes people’s multiple water needs as a starting point for providing integrated services, moving beyond the conventional silos of the domestic and productive sectors. Three aspects are discussed. First, a typology is developed for the various efforts since the 1980s to overcome the shortcomings of conventional single-use planning and design. Second, the empirical evidence is analyzed to identify generic merits and drawbacks of needs-based and participatory water-services provision compared to conventional approaches. Third, a framework is provided, based on principles at the community, intermediate and national levels that represent the conditions that the project team have identified as being pivotal for implementing and upscaling MUS approaches at a large scale.

http://www.musproject.net/page/571