Platform on multiple-use services in Nepal revived

On the 11th of July an informal get-together was organised at the premises of NEWAH (Nepal Water and Health), to identify the interest for reviving a platform or network on multiple-use services in Nepal. The initiative emerged from a training programme on MUS that was jointly carried out by NEWAH and IRC in the context of an EC-funded rehabilitation project in Western Nepal. Multiple-use services are not new to Nepal. Actually, one cannot speak to anybody from the water sector in Nepal who has not seen a community already applying gravity water supply schemes for both domestic and productive uses. However, a structured approach to multiple-use services has only been around for a few years. The first well-known documented experiences with MUS are from IDE in 2003, which developed as a logical consequence of their micro-irrigation schemes. Other organizations from the WASH sector have started assessing and planning for multiple-uses: WaterAid has documented experiences of Community Water Resource Management (CWRM); NEWAH has promoted kitchen gardening based on the reuse of grey water in its WASH projects; communities and local authorities have developed water use management plans in Helvetas-supported programmes; and, the Rural Village Water Resource Management Project supported by Finnida focused on this issue.

These past efforts were accompanied by activities to stimulate wider learning on mus with a view towards scaling. Up. For example, a so-called learning alliance on MUS was established and national and district-level workshops were organized, with formal support from the relevant ministries at the national level. However, in the field hardly anything has changed. For example, the local government has a small budget allocation to apply MUS in micro-irrigation schemes, but in general the local engineers are often not aware or feel that it is beyond their mandate. In the meeting all felt a strong need and potential to share experiences and join forces to develop and apply a sustainable mus approach at a much larger scale. The participating organizations (WaterAid Nepal, NEWAH, Concern International and IDE) agreed that they will call for a wider meeting to seek the revival of the MUS Nepal platform.
For more information, contact René van Lieshout (lieshout@irc.nl).