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What is MUS?
Rural and peri-urban people need water for drinking, cooking, washing, sanitation, watering animals, growing food and generating income. Multiple-use water services (MUS) take people’s water needs as the starting point. By looking at all water needs and available water resources holistically, it is possible to make more cost-effective and sustainable investments that generate a broader range of health and livelihood benefits than is possible with single-use systems.
Why MUS?
The reality is that many people use domestic water services for a variety of productive purposes, including fisheries, livestock, home gardens and small-scale enterprises, and irrigation services as well as domestic needs such as drinking, washing, bathing and sanitation. If these uses are not planned for, the result is often damage to systems and conflicts between users.
How to do MUS?
Moving from basic supplies to MUS requires planning for higher levels of service in terms of the quantities of water supplied and distance from point of use. Intermediate-level MUS provides the highest benefit-cost ratio. In most of sub-Saharan Africa, upgrading to this level of service would mean doubling or tripling current volumes supplied, of which only 3–5 lpcd would need to be of high enough quality for drinking and cooking.
Rural and peri-urban people need water for drinking, cooking, washing, sanitation, watering animals, growing food and generating income. Multiple-Use water Services (MUS) take people’s water needs as the starting point. By looking at all water needs and available water resources holistically, it is possible to make more cost-effective and sustainable investments that generate a broader range of health and livelihood benefits than is possible with single-use systems.
Multiple-Use water Services meet people’s domestic and productive needs while making the most efficient use of water resources – considering different water sources and their quality, quantity, reliability and distance from point of use. A MUS approach can be used to plan a new water service or to upgrade existing domestic or irrigation services. This is a systematic approach that can be scaled up.
Thematic Priorities
- Supporting awareness and scaling-up of MUS approaches.
- Fostering greater links between domestic rural water supply and rural water use for productive purposes, including agriculture (crops and livestock), commercial and rural industries.
- Finding pragmatic ways to improve water and land tenure and bridge the gap between national legislation and local customary norms and practices.