Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
9 The MUS Approach in a Rural Context
In many areas around the world where centralised water services are absent, pop-
ulations living in poverty have limited or no access to clean water for the satis-
faction of various needs, ranging from domestic uses, such as drinking, cooking,
hygiene and sanitation, to productive activities (e.g. irrigation, livestock production
and small-scale enterprises such as brick making and food processing). Existing
applications in low-income countries rely on the single-use approach where plan-
ning, investment and management of water services targets a single use such as
drinking or irrigation with possible negative impacts in human health and sus-
tainability as in the end people use the supplied water for multiple purposes
(Renwick et al. 2007 ).
9.1 What Is the MUS Approach?
Multiple-Use Water Services or MUS is an integrated and participatory approach in
water services that considers (poor) consumers
'
actual water needs as a starting
point in order to design,
finance and manage existing or new water infrastructure for
multiple domestic and productive purposes (Van Koppen et al. 2006 ; Renwick et al.
2007 ).
9.2 Why Apply MUS?
MUS is a relatively new approach, which has received a great deal of acceptance
among policymakers, programme managers, investing organisations, water pro-
fessionals and academic institutions (Adank et al. 2012 ). Multiple use water ser-
vices can be more expensive compared to single-use services but have the potential
to provide a wide range of economic and social bene
ts to consumers (Renwick
et al. 2007 ):
Increased income and multiple social bene
ts (improved human health, more
and safe food, time savings, social equity) for more people;
￿
Vulnerability and poverty reduction;
￿
Improved sustainability of service delivery as MUS effectively target users
'
needs and priorities and result in increased income, encouraging communities to
operate, sustain and
￿
finance services better.
Search WWH ::




Custom Search