A paper presented by Juan Carlos Pérez de Mendiguren Castresana on 21-23 January 2003, Muldersdrift, South Africa

Demand Responsive Approach (DRA) was the “new phrase” in the South African Water Supply and Sanitation sector at the turn of the century. The fundamental basis of this new approach was that sustainable water systems at community level can only be achieved if people are provided with the level of service they want and are able to pay for. In other words, sustainability requires understanding and being responsive to people’s effective demand for water. Consequently, the obvious question to ask was how well do we understand that demand? The answer is not very well. Our current understanding of water demand for productive uses is biased towards formal sector users of water (Agriculture, Forestry, Mining, Industry and Tourism). Very little is known about water use and demand in rural communities and most of the research has focused on water for human consumption. Systems have been designed solely to provide small quantities of drinking quality water and, in many cases, the unit cost of the water is high.
But, do these systems meet demand for water in rural areas? Are there any “productive uses” for domestic water? How much water is demanded for these other uses? Is there an effective demand for this type of water (can people afford to pay for that water)? Are there any economic benefits to the use of this water? What happens when the system does not cater for this demand? Providing answers to this
type of questions is critical for practitioners, planners and policy makers in the Community Water and Sanitation sector. It will determine their ability to understand demand and therefore their ability to respond
to it. [authors abstract]