Category Name: Water Infrastructure

August 26, 2008

Multiple-Use Water Services to Advance the Millennium Development Goals

Barbara van Koppen, Patrick Moriarty and Eline Boelee | International Water Management Institute

This research report presents the findings of the first phase of the action-research project "Models for implementing multiple-use (MUS) water supply systems for enhanced land and water productivity, rural livelihoods and gender equity." The report focuses on three aspects of MUS: a typology of the various efforts since the 1980s to overcome the shortcomings of conventional single-use planning and design, analysis of empirical evidence to identify generic merits and drawbacks of needs-based and participatory water-services provision compared to conventional approaches with regard to wellbeing, gender; ability and willingness to pay for water services, and a framework based on principles grouped in "Learning Wheels" at the community, intermediate and national levels.