RESEAR CH REPOR T Multiple-Use Water Services 98 to Advance the Millennium Development Goals Barbara van Koppen, Patrick Moriarty and Eline Boelee Postal Address P O Box 2075 Colombo Sri Lanka Location 127, Sunil Mawatha Pelawatta Battaramulla Sri Lanka Telephone +94-11-2787404 Fax +94-11-2786854 E-mail [email protected] Website http://www.iwmi.org In ter na tional SM Water Management IWnatteerr Mnaanatigoenmaelnt IWMIisaFutureHarvestCenter ISSN 1026-0862 Institut e IWMI is a Future Harvest Center Institut e supportedbytheCGIAR ISBN 92-9090-627-8 supported by the CGIAR 978-92-9090-627-8 Research Reports IWMI’s mission is to improve water and land resources management for food, livelihoods and nature. In serving this mission, IWMI concentrates on the integration of policies, technologies and management systems to achieve workable solutions to real problems—practical, relevant results in the field of irrigation and water and land resources. The publications in this series cover a wide range of subjects—from computer modeling to experience with water user associations—and vary in content from directly applicable research to more basic studies, on which applied work ultimately depends. Some research reports are narrowly focused, analytical and detailed empirical studies; others are wide-ranging and synthetic overviews of generic problems. Although most of the reports are published by IWMI staff and their collaborators, we welcome contributions from others. Each report is reviewed internally by IWMI’s own staff and Fellows, and by external reviewers. The reports are published and distributed both in hard copy and electronically (www.iwmi.org) and where possible all data and analyses will be available as separate downloadable files. Reports may be copied freely and cited with due acknowledgment. Research Report 98 Multiple-Use Water Services to Advance the Millennium Development Goals Barbara van Koppen, Patrick Moriarty and Eline Boelee, with contributions from Juergen Hagmann, Deepak Adhikari, Mintesinot Behailu, Yogesh Bhatt, Rocio Bustamante, John Butterworth, Tessa Cousins, Michiko Ebato, Fungai Makoni, Theo Maluleke, Marielle Montginoul, Sylvie Morardet, Dhruba Pant, Frits Penning de Vries, Ines Restrepo. Sawaeng Ruyasoongnern, Stef Smits, Sudarshan Suryawhanshi and Bob Yoder International Water Management Institute P O Box 2075, Colombo, Sri Lanka i IWMI receives its principal funding from 58 governments, private foundations, and international and regional organizations known as the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). Support is also given by the Governments of Ghana, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Thailand. The authors: Barbara van Koppen is Principal Researcher at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI); Patrick Moriarty is Section Head: Knowledge Development and Advocacy at the International Water and Sanitation Centre (IRC); and Eline Boelee is Senior Researcher at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI). This research report is based on the ongoing work by the action-research project “Models for implementing multiple-use water supply systems for enhanced land and water productivity, rural livelihoods and gender equity.” This project is funded by the Challenge Program on Water and Food, the Government of France, and matching funds of IWMI and global and national partners. The authors gratefully acknowledge the excellent comments on earlier drafts of this research report by Roberto Lenton, Nancy Johnson, Richard Carter and Mary Renwick. van Koppen, B.; Moriarty, P.; Boelee, E. 2006. Multiple-use water services to advance the millennium development goals. Research Report 98. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute, / water supply / domestic / irrigation / water services / gender / water quality / planning / design / livelihoods / user charges / financing / environmental sustainability / development policy / poverty alleviation / water legislation / participatory management / water use / costs / appropriate technology / public health / risks / integrated water resources management / decentralization / multiple water uses / ISSN 1026-0862 ISBN 92-9090-627-8 978-92-9090-627-8 Copyright © 2006, by IWMI. All rights reserved. Cover design: Rosalyn Olyslager. Please send inquiries and comments to: [email protected] Contents Summary v Background and Aim of the Report 1 From Single-Use to Multiple-Use Planning and Design 5 Merits and Drawbacks of Multiple-Use Water Services 9 Envisioning Upscaled Multiple-Use Water Services 18 Empowering the Poor at Community Level 20 Enhancing Service Delivery at Intermediate Level 25 Ensuring an Enabling Environment at National Level 30 Conclusions 34 Literature Cited 37 iii iii SUMMARY This research report presents the findings of the allocation and protection of people’s basic first phase of the action-research project “Models multiple water needs; and incremental costs. for implementing multiple-use water supply Third, a framework is provided, based on prin- systems for enhanced land and water productiv- ciples grouped in “Learning Wheels” at the ity, rural livelihoods and gender equity.” Multiple- community, intermediate and national levels. The use water services, or “mus” in short, is a principles represent the conditions that the participatory, integrated and poverty-reduction- project team identified as pivotal for implementing focused approach in poor rural and peri-urban and upscaling mus approaches at a larger scale. areas, which takes people’s multiple water needs The ten principles include: service provision as a starting point for providing integrated ser- based on a thorough understanding of water- vices, moving beyond the conventional sectoral related livelihoods; sustainable, equitable and barriers of the domestic and productive sectors. efficient use of water resources; appropriate Three aspects are discussed. First, a typology is technologies; inclusive institutions (at community developed for the various efforts since the 1980s level); adequate financing (crosscutting all to overcome the shortcomings of conventional levels); adaptive and learning-based management single-use planning and design. Second, the (at the intermediate level); coordination between empirical evidence is analyzed to identify generic sectors and actors; long-term support; participa- merits and drawbacks of needs-based and tory planning (at intermediate and national lev- participatory water-services provision compared els); and enabling policies and legislation (by to conventional approaches with regard to well- governments at national level). Action-research being; gender; ability and willingness to pay for guided by this framework is expected to generate water services; water productivity and “more use better insights and better action to upscale this per drop;” integrated local water management appropriate form of IWRM and multiply its ben- institutions; protection against illegal use; health; efits to advance the Millennium Development equitable and environmentally sustainable water Goals. v v Multiple-Use Water Services to Advance the Millennium Development Goals Barbara van Koppen, Patrick Moriarty and Eline Boelee Background and Aim of the Report Background Goal 2: universal primary education (girls are liberated from domestic water chores, and The present research report is the outcome of boys from herding livestock to distant water the joint work of the team of the action- points); research project “Models for implementing Goal 3: women’s empowerment (women are multiple-use water supply systems for liberated from domestic water chores and enhanced land and water productivity, rural obtain equal access to water for food and livelihoods and gender equity” (see income); www.musproject.net).1 This project develops a Goal 4: reduced child mortality; participatory, integrated, and poverty-reduction- focused approach to providing people with Goal 5: improved maternal health; appropriate and sustainable water (and sanitation) Goal 6 HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases services, which we call “multiple-use water combated (more water of higher quality is services” or, in short, “mus.”2 The objective of the available for drinking and hygiene, and water- project is to advance the Millennium Development related diseases are prevented); and Goals by identifying and developing practical models, tools and guidelines for providing and Goal 7: enhanced environmental sustainability upscaling improved water services that better (water resources are used equitably, rationally meet poor women’s, men’s and children’s multiple and sustainably, and watershed management water needs. ensures adequate drainage and prevents The Millennium Development Goals pollution and land and water erosion) (UN acknowledge the critical and multifaceted role of Millennium Project Task Force on Water and water in realizing a world, which aims, by 2015, Sanitation, 2005; at achieving the following: www.unmillenniumproject.org). Goal 1: halving the prevalence of hunger In the past decade, broad consensus has (water improves food and income from crops, been achieved amongst governments, NGOs, animals and small businesses in poor rural international development and financing agencies and peri-urban areas); and donors on key changes necessary within the 1This partnership of researchers and implementers from the domestic and productive sector is, at global level, led by International Development Enterprise (IDE), International Water and Sanitation Center (IRC), International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Khon Kaen University, Thailand, and Mekelle University, Ethiopia. The action research is carried out in collaboration with national partners in five benchmark basins of the Challenge Program: the Andean basins (Colombia and Bolivia), Indus-Ganges basin (India and Nepal), Mekong basin (Thailand), Limpopo basin (South Africa and Zimbabwe), and Nile basin (Ethiopia). The project is funded by the Challenge Program on Water and Food (see www.waterforfood.org). 2The term “water services” is used broadly and includes both sanitation services and hygienic behavior change. 1 water sector, if it is to rise to the challenges multiple water needs is a main driver for posed by achieving the Millennium Development integration within the water sector itself. Goals, including: Concurrent multiple water needs especially prevail among the primary target group of the Millennium • Good governance, including people’s Development Goals: the rural and peri-urban poor participation and the devolution of decision- in developing countries whose diversified making authority and the required resources livelihoods depend strongly and in many ways to the lowest appropriate level. upon water. They use water concurrently for domestic purposes, cropping, gardening, • Participatory and demand-based technology livestock, fisheries and aquaculture, tree growing, choice, from a range of appropriate and food processing (beer making, coffee processing, affordable technologies. butchery), brick making, market places, weaving, • A central role for women in planning and handicrafts and other small businesses and managing water services, as expressed in the ceremonial and cultural purposes. Table 1 Dublin principles (1992). illustrates such multiple water uses for a rural household. Hence, any water service that seeks Above all, it is widely recognized by now to meet their real-life water needs can only do so that, in addition to good governance, by meeting multiple water needs at the same decentralization and participatory technology time. development, it pays to think and act in a more The single most important reason why integrated and holistic way. This philosophy is planning and design of water services on the reflected in the concept of Integrated Water basis of multiple water needs are still not the Resources Management (IWRM), which is defined norm, in spite of water services providers’ as a process which promotes the coordinated genuine and intensive efforts to improve users' development and management of water, land and well-being, is that people’s integrated need for related resources, in order to maximize the and use of water do not match the ways in which resultant economic and social welfare in an the water sector itself is organized. The equitable manner without compromising the structuring of policymaking, implementation, sustainability of vital ecosystems (GWP 2000). subsidization and financing by governments and, IWRM has become the overarching consensus of often to a lesser extent, by nongovernmental the water community, at least at the abstract organizations (NGOs), private water services level. However, at a more concrete level, the provision and commercial financing, is sectoral IWRM paradigm has been critiqued for being and top-down, dividing water services provision amorphous and open to multiple interpretations, into a domestic sector, an irrigation sector, a and perhaps most seriously for lack of practical livestock sector, a fisheries and aquaculture tools and approaches by which to implement it sector, etc. In this setup, each sector specializes (Biswas 2004). in one single water use and plans and designs its This research report focuses on a concrete, interventions according to what can be called a participatory, integrated, and poverty-reduction- “single-use planning and design” approach. focused approach to providing people with Implicitly, it is assumed that “other sectors” take appropriate and sustainable water and sanitation care of the other water needs of their clients— services that meet their multiple water needs. We whether “the other sectors” are actually present or refer to this approach as “multiple-use water not, and in many poor areas they are not. In services” or “mus.” A mus approach addresses water-scarce areas there may actually be only the challenges mentioned above by recognizing one source of water and once this has been that people’s water needs are integrated and are allocated to a particular use, it cannot easily be part and parcel of their multifaceted livelihoods, used for other purposes. Thus, technical and that the necessity to better meet people’s specialization and bureaucratic structuring 2 d e Enterprise Varies Varies Varies High Homestead near or distant Income Varies ding sanitation) an uring the rest of th u d TABLE 1.Water demand characteristics of a hypothetical rural household (eight persons; a cow, a donkey and six goats or sheep in a hot climate). Characteristics ofDrinking-Drinking-Bathing andWashingFish cultureIrrigation demand and benefitsHumansLivestocksanitation How frequently isDailyDailyDaily toDaily toContinuousWeekly water needed?weeklyweekly 23445456,0008,000How much water is1230 31needed per year? (m) How critical is goodVery, especially organicQuite, less thanNotNot, exceptHardlyHardly, except water quality?pollution and certain chemicalsfor peoplefor hardnessfor salinity Elasticity of waterVery low aboveVery low aboveLowLowHighVery high use w.r.t. supplyminimum requirementsminimum requirements Site of useHomesteadHomestead, nearHomesteadHomesteadHomesteadHomestead distant, pastoralistor nearor nearnear or distantnear or distant BenefitsHealth/hygieneFood, income, draughtHealth/hygiene/Health/Food/incomeFood/income power, assetsanitationhygiene Monetary costs ofMediumMediumMediumMediumMedium-HighHigh water provision Notes: 1Calculations based on daily requirements for people at 4 lppd (Howard and Bartram 2003); for cattle 27 lpcd, sheep 5 lpsd, donkey 16 lpdd (FAO 1986); for bathing (inclwashing 15 lpcd each (Thompson et al. 2001). 2This is water only for drinking. Water may also be used for bathing and cleaning of stables. 333One hectare of land with 0.5 ha rice requiring 8 mm/day during 120 days (4,800 m), 0.5 ha vegetables requiring 5 mm/day during 120 days (3,000 m) and a rain-fed crop year. w.r.t. = with regard to; lppd = liters per person per day; lpcd = liters per cow per day; lpsd = liters per sheep per day; lpdd = liters per donkey per day. 3