Enabling environment
This report (in Spanish) analyzes the project cycle of PAAR, the intermediate-level rural water supply programme in Valle del Cauca. It focuses on quality and quantity norms and tariff setting that hamper or enable productive uses of water supplies during project planning, implementation and evaluation. Recommendations are made for improvements in the programme to better support livelihoods through improved water supply.
This report captures the main proceedings, points of discussion and conclusions emanating from the symposium.
John Butterworth, Martin Keijzer, Ian Smout and Fitsum Hagos (Eds). Proceedings of the International Symposium Multiple-Use Services; from Practice to Policy. 4-6 November 2008, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
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J. Mtolo: an overview of Water for Growth and Development in South Africa
Water for Growth and Development signals a shift from earlier supply and demand driven approaches, through the period of concerted water service delivery to this sharply-focused response to current and future socio-economic demands and issues of water security. The new focus/thinking strongly emphasize the issue of “Bringing water to the forefront of development planning” which means that all economic and development planning must be influenced and guided by an assessment of water availability. A critical point for consideration is: Water is seldom the primary driver and catalyst of economic development in many instances; however, it can be a severe constraint to development initiatives in many parts of our country. Its availability, or potential availability, is therefore a crucial factor in all development planning initiatives and processes (whether local, regional / provincial or national) in the country. [authors abstract]
B. van Koppen, S. Smits, P. Moriarty, and F. Penning de Vries: Community-scale multiple-use water services: ‘MUS to climb the water ladder’
The Challenge Program on Water and Food-supported MUS project (PN28) developed and tested ‘multiple-use water services’ (‘MUS’). This new approach to water services takes multiple water needs of rural and peri-urban communities as the starting point for planning and design of new systems or rehabilitations. By overcoming the administrative boundaries between single-use sectors, MUS contributes more sustainably to more dimensions of wellbeing than single-use approaches: health, freedom from drudgery, food and income. The action-research took place in 25 study areas in eight countries in five basins. The project brought global, national, intermediate-level and local partners together who were champions of MUS at the time in five benchmark basins of the Challenge Programme on Water and Food (CPWF). At community-level, the project identified generic models for implementing MUS. This was done through pilot-implementation of innovative multiple-use water services and by analyzing de facto multiple uses of single-use planned systems. It was found that by providing 50-100 lpcd, so doubling or tripling the common design norms in the domestic sector, multiple cost-effective benefits could be achieved from homestead-scale MUS. At the intermediate, national, and global level, the project’s ‘learning alliances’ engaged in the wide upscaling of these community-level MUS models, with the aim to establish an enabling environment to provide every rural and peri-urban water user with water for multiple uses. [authors abstract]
I. Domínguez, S. Corrales, I. Restrepo, J.A. Butterworth: Multiple uses of water: a view from the reality of rural communities and national politics in Colombia
The water needs of people living in rural areas are integrated, and take into account personal hygiene, drinking water, food preparation and small scale productive activities. These activities are all important to provide food security, income and reduce the vulnerability of poor people. The interventions made by water supply projects that follow national policies and regulations in Colombia are, like in many other countries, fragmented and usually neglect innovative approaches. Innovative approaches that consider all basic water related activities linked to livelihoods can make a significant difference to household economies in poor areas. This paper presents evidence on how families manage water in rural areas of the Valle del Cauca Department (Colombia), and how this reality has been ignored by national policies and regulation. Proposals to reduce the gap between rural practice and policies for this sector are also suggested. These recommendations should help policy makers to take the rural context into account, to improve the regulations, and to contribute to poverty alleviation, equity and sustainable development. [authors abstract]
S. Mashicila: Evolving mechanisms to implement a range of small and large scale water supply infrastructure for households’ multiple water uses in South Africa
South Africa’s renewed commitment to poverty eradication is voiced in the water sector through the new Strategic Framework for Water for Sustainable Growth and Development. It recognises the catalytic role that water can play in poverty eradication through home- and village-based economic activity of poor households. This sets the table for the implementation of a range of conventional and less conventional infrastructure solutions of all sizes, to respond to people’s need for water for productive uses, and to the diversity of situations found in the South African context. Current institutional arrangements for water supply and management provides a basic framework within which such a range of infrastructure solutions could be implemented, provided some adaptations are made to consultation processes, design criteria and performance measurement. Sufficient attention to operation and maintenance of infrastructure is proving to be a key challenge. [authors abstract]
Powerpoint presentation by Stef Smits, IRC, given at the Thematic Group Meeting in London, 2007.
The multiple use services approach has been gaining recognition in South Africa over the last few years, expressed in a range of policy, research, implementation and advocacy initiatives. In 2005 a national seminar was held on the theme. One of the concerns raised was that local government is the key to implementation, but they had so far been rather absent from the discussions. In a follow-up to the 2005 seminar, a second seminar was convened by the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF) and the MUS (Multiple Use Systems) project in partnership with WIN-SA (the Water Information Network of South Africa) and SALGA (the South African Local Government Association) on 25 October 2006. The objective of the seminar was to look at the implications for local government implementation of the mus approach. This focused on the guidelines for local government implementation of multiple use water services that DWAF is developing. Participants came from a cross-section of institutions: national government departments, provincial DWAF offices, local government, research institutions, NGOs and consultancies.
The importance of mus to realising goals of addressing poverty through water was emphasised. However, there are still no coherent, agreed upon, national definitions of multiple uses of water, that give clarity while leaving room for flexibility. It is agreed that livelihoods and Local Economic Development (LED) are at the heart of mus, and that the boundaries of that cannot be tightly set. Definitions can become an academic discussion, but are important as they have implications for mandates and for accounting and funding. Mapping of the different funding streams need to be combined to implement mus. This is complicated, as the agencies who administer them operate at different levels and with different procedures. Integrated Development Plans (IDPs), in theory, provide a mechanism for alignment between various agencies and plans, but in practice IDP processes are sometimes weak. IDPs could be the basis for assessing demand and needs for mus, considering supply issues, and enabling cooperative governance. Combining piped water supply with alternative water sources, especially rainwater harvesting, seems to provide the most practical way forward in the South African context. The lack of capacity at municipal level and how this may limit the implementation of mus which is a new and more demanding approach was raised as a concern. On the other hand, the integrated approach required for mus may also be an opportunity to achieve more impact and reduce poverty.
A range of activities were proposed including strengthened communication and advocacy and continuing the work on the guidelines for local government, especially in the area of financing mechanisms. This should be accompanied by the piloting multiple use initiatives in the context of municipal service delivery plans.