Water for Life
Why the Multiple Use water Services (MUS) approach is key to rural development and climate resilience

Description:

Water is central to the survival and wellbeing of billions in rural areas. Water not only serves everyone’s domestic uses but also water uses for livestock, agriculture, and other production for liveli-hoods. Since time immemorial, rural communities have coped with seasonal and climate variability by combining their multiple, varia-ble local water resources of precipitation, soil moisture, wetlands, surface and groundwater sources for multiple uses for health and wealth. Yet, conventional water management often treats water resources, infrastructure, and uses in silos, missing opportunities to build on already existing integration. The Multiple Use water Ser-vices (MUS) approach addresses this gap by recognizing and plan-ning for people’s diverse water needs, leading to more sustainable, equitable, and cost-effective outcomes.

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Bibliographical Information:

van Koppen, B., Singh Khawas, N.., Kileshye Onema, J-M., Domínguez, I., Origa, J., Smith, D. & GC, R.K. (2025) Water for Life. Why the Multiple Use water Services (MUS) approach is key to rural development and climate resilience , 1 , Skat Foundation , RWSN , St. Gallen, Switzerland

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