Dr Patrick Moriarty (IRC) and Dr John Butterworth (NRI) (2003)

This IRC Thematic Overview Paper (TOP) looks at the broader range of uses which people allocate to their water supplies. It looks in particular at productive activities and micro-enterprises within households in villages, towns and cities in developing countries.

It examines how domestic water supplies can become productive and how this can contribute to peoples' livelihoods, particularly those of women and the poor, thus increasing the impact of an intervention. This approach challenges the traditional assumption that water delivered to people's homes should be for domestic purposes alone. At its heart lies the belief - supported by a rapidly increasing body of empirical evidence - that by adopting a broader perspective the WATSAN sector can more effectively contribute to tackling rural and urban poverty and at the same time better address perennial WATSAN problems such as sustainability and cost recovery.

Target audience: Policy makers and sector specialists interested in the issue of productive uses of water.

A succinct introduction to this TOP and its PDF copy may be accessed from the IRC website.