Stef Smits, Túpac Mejía, Senia Eben Rodríguez and Damián Suazo: Effects of multiple use of water on the sustainability of rural water supply services in Honduras

The de facto use of rural water supply systems for productive purposes is a practice that has recently received recognition in Honduras. This paper presents the results of a study that tried to further characterise this existing practice in a more structured way through 14 case studies, in particular analyzing its effects on people’s livelihoods as well as on sustainability in service provision. The cases show the nearly universal existence of productive use of rural water supplies, but showed that the extent of the uses and the relative importance in people’s livelihoods differs a lot between different user categories. Although this de facto use of rural water supply systems may bring risks for sustainability in service provision, the cases also showed that a number of relatively simple measures can help in regulating water use. The authors believe that multiple use of water can be accommodated into service provision in such a way that it doesn’t cause negative impacts. [authors abstract]