Resources

This guideline has been developed for MUS projects in Zimbabwe. It aims to help addressing water for livelihoods in a structured way in different steps of the project cycle. It is geared towards district level staff, who work on the provision of water supply to rural communities.It provides tools and methods which can be used as complement to existing guidelines for WASH project, to specifically include livelihoods. This guide consists of three parts:

Part 1: conceptual framework. This part aims to define key concepts in relation to water and livelidhoods

Part 2: addressing water and livelihoods in the project cycle.

Part 3: tools and methods. This part provides tools and methods that can be used in the planning process

A study report published by and written on behalf of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Mapping systems and Services for Multiple Uses (MASSMUS) is a module for assessing non-crop water uses in an irrigation scheme within the general approach developed by FAO for auditing the irrigation system management called MASSCOTE (Mapping Systems and Services for Canal Operation Techniques). The need to develop specific approach to multiple uses of water in an irrigation system stemmed from an analysis of 30 irrigation schemes, which revealed that non-crop water use and multiple functions of irrigation schemes were more of a norm than the exception.

The Krishna Western Delta System is located in South India in the state of Andhra Pradesh –on the right bank of the downstream stretches of the Krishna river, along the sea coast (Bay of Bengale). The climate of the Krishna Western Delta is dominated by the southwest monsoon which provides most of the precipitation for the region. The mean annual rainfall amounts to 800 - 900 mm, and about 90% of the rainfall is received during the monsoon months of May to October. The climate can be classified as sub-humid, with minimum and maximum average temperatures ranging from 12.8 to 26.0 °C and 29.7 to 46.5 °C respectively. [authors abstract]

This MSc internship report provides an evaluation of a MUS system, developed by IDE, in Phulbari village in the Nepali middle hills. Specifically it evaluates the performance of the technology and assesses the benefits for the farmers, using IDE‘s definition of impact. It shows that cost-recovery of the system is one year; in such a short time enough benefit can be generated through vegetable production to recover the investment costs. In addition, it reports on improved intra-household equity. One of the points of improvement is the strengthening of water user committees for MUS.

Bharat Sharma (IWMI) presented experiences with MUS in the Northeastern Hills of India, drawing on earlier experiences in Nepal.

Tupac Mejia's presentation dealt with guidelines for MUS design and their application in Honduras.

Isabel Dominguez presented work as a result of her MSc thesis, and a technical exchange between Cinara and WEDC, dealing with a water balance for MUS in Colombia, amongst other using both green and blue water balances.

Dr P.S. Rao provided an overview of the MASSMUS guideline application in a large-scale irrigation system in India.

In this presentation, Barbara van Koppen (IWMI) highlighted guidelines for community scale MUS, as applied in Southern Africa.

This thesis by Pragya Shrestha aims to analyse MUS in terms of its cost effectiveness in domestic water supply services and conduct poverty impact analysis, taking a case study of Nepal. The study provides evidence of the very positive cost-effectiveness, as well as of other livelihood benefits, such as increase in saving and credit groups, getting access to luxury items, initiating other income generating activities and having better access to high-value food such as fresh vegetables. It concludes that MUS is not only a financially profitable investment, but is also beneficial in terms of social development. There is a high potential for the MUS in countries like Nepal, if its challenges are addressed.