Scaling Up Multiple Use Water Services: Accountability in the Water Sector

Product Description
Poor people in developing countries need water for many purposes: for drinking, bathing, irrigating vegetable gardens, and watering livestock. However, responsibility for water services is divided between different government agencies, the WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) and irrigation sub-sectors, with the result that people’s holistic needs are not met. Multiple use water services (MUS) is a participatory water services approach that takes account of poor people’s multiple water needs as a starting point of planning, and the approach has been implemented in at least 22 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Scaling up Multiple Use Water Services argues that by designing cost-effective multi-purpose infrastructure MUS can have a positive impact on people’s health and livelihoods. It analyses and explains the success factors of MUS, using a framework of accountability for public service delivery, and it also examines why there has been resistance against scaling up MUS. A stronger service delivery approach can overcome this resistance, by rewarding more livelihood outcomes, by fostering discretionary decision-making power of local-level staff and by allowing horizontal coordination.This book should be read by government and aid agency policy makers in the WASH and agriculture sectors, by development field workers, and by academics, researchers and students of international development.
Review
“The book provides a compelling argument for the water sector to look at MUS much more strategically." (Janmejay Singh, former Coordinator of the Community-Driven Development (CDD) Community of Practice)

“This well-written book is not only a must-read for water engineers, local government planners, agricultural extension workers and public health officers, but also, and essentially, for politicians!” (Pieter van der Zaag, Professor of Water Resources Management)

“At last a book that tells us why MUS can both break down problematic silos in the water sector and provide multiple benefits to enhance human well-being.” (Lyla Mehta, Research Fellow, Institute of Development Studies)
Review
‘This book provides a compelling argument for both the need for the water sector to look at MUS much more strategically, and for the growing number of local and community-driven development programmes to realize their potential in providing for the multiple basic needs around water services that poor communities grapple with across the developing world.’ Janmejay Singh, Former Coordinator of the Community-Driven Development (CDD) Community of Practice at the World Bank. ‘This book integrates what until now have remained separate, namely the drinking water and irrigation sub-sectors, despite more than two decades of efforts at alignment. The book provides a practical guide how to overcome this artificial divide, and how investing in local water service provision can make a real difference for people, not only in terms of their health but also in terms of their wealth. This well-written book is not only a must-read for water engineers, local government planners, agricultural extension workers and public health officers, but also, and essentially, for politicians!’ Pieter van der Zaag, Professor of Water Resources Management, UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, The Netherlands ‘At last a book that tells us why MUS can both break down problematic silos in the water sector and provide multiple benefits to enhance human wellbeing. It also provides us with powerful lessons regarding scaling up and public sector accountability. This book is a must-read for anybody concerned with pro-poor and gender equitable water services and for solutions that emerge from the grounded experiences of local water users around the world.’ Lyla Mehta is a Research Fellow at Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex.
About the Author
Barbara Van Koppen is a Principal Researcher at the Internat