Poor people in developing countries need water for many purposes: for drinking, bathing, irrigating vegetable gardens, and watering livestock. However, responsibility for water services is divided between different government agencies, the WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) and irrigation sub-sectors, with the result that people’s holistic needs are not met. Multiple use water services (MUS) is a participatory water services approach that takes account of poor people’s multiple water needs as a starting point of planning, and the approach has been implemented in at least 22 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Scaling up Multiple Use Water Services argues that by designing cost-effective multi-purpose infrastructure MUS can have a positive impact on people’s health and livelihoods. It analyses and explains the success factors of MUS, using a framework of accountability for public service delivery, and it also examines why there has been resistance against scaling up MUS. A stronger service delivery approach can overcome this resistance, by rewarding more livelihood outcomes, by fostering discretionary decision-making power of local-level staff and by allowing horizontal coordination.This book should be read by government and aid agency policy makers in the WASH and agriculture sectors, by development field workers, and by academics, researchers and students of international development.

Barbara van Koppen
Barbara van Koppen is a Principal Researcher at the International Water Management Institute, South Africa.

Stef Smits
Stef Smits is Senior Programme Officer, IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre, Netherlands.

Cristina Rumbaitis del Rio
Cristina Rumbaitis del Rio is Senior Associate Director, The Rockefeller Foundation, USA

John Thomas
John B. Thomas is Program Associate, The Rockefeller Foundation, USA.

Perspective: The Importance of Water Security for Ensuring Food Security, Good Nutrition, and Well-being

Young, Sera L

Frongillo, Edward A

Jamaluddine, Zeina

Melgar-Quiñonez, Hugo

Pérez-Escamilla, Rafael

Ringler, Claudia

Rosinger, Asher Y

Advances in Nutrition, Vol. 12 (2021), Iss. 4 P.1058

https://doi.org/10.1093/advances/nmab003 [Citations: 28]

Water access and household economic insecurity: conceptual framework and econometric analysis applied to rural Nepal

Fleming-Muñoz, David A.

Foran, Tira

Neupane, Nilhari

Rasul, Golam

Wahid, Shahriar M.

Penton, David J.

(2021) P.1

https://doi.org/10.1080/07900627.2021.1999217 [Citations: 0]

Water, Energy, Food and People Across the Global South

The Social Flows of Water in the Global South: Recognizing the Water-Gender-Health ‘Nexus’

Leo, Amanda

Lougheed, Elizabeth

Swatuk, Larry A.

Fatch, Joanna

2018

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64024-2_7 [Citations: 0]

Liquid dynamics: challenges for sustainability in the water domain

Mehta, Lyla

Movik, Synne

WIREs Water, Vol. 1 (2014), Iss. 4 P.369

https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1031 [Citations: 11]

Influence of different discourses on the outcomes of development policies and projects: Insights from water project implementation in Nepal

Haapala, Juho

Keskinen, Marko

Environmental Policy and Governance, Vol. 28 (2018), Iss. 3 P.141

https://doi.org/10.1002/eet.1799 [Citations: 2]

Freshwater Governance for the 21st Century

Rights-Based Freshwater Governance for the Twenty-First Century: Beyond an Exclusionary Focus on Domestic Water Uses

Van Koppen, Barbara

Hellum, Anne

Mehta, Lyla

Derman, Bill

Schreiner, Barbara

2017

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43350-9_7 [Citations: 2]

What factors determine the technical performance of community-managed rural water systems in the middle hills of Nepal?

GC, Raj K.

Ranganathan, Shyam

Hammett, A. L. (Tom)

Hall, Ralph P.

Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development, Vol. 11 (2021), Iss. 2 P.222

https://doi.org/10.2166/washdev.2020.189 [Citations: 3]

Understanding the non-institutionalization of a socio-technical innovation: the case of multiple-use water services (MUS) in Nepal

Clement, Floriane

Pradhan, Prachanda

Van Koppen, Barbara

Water International, Vol. 44 (2019), Iss. 4 P.408

https://doi.org/10.1080/02508060.2019.1600336 [Citations: 3]