Multiple Use Service of Water: A South African case study
My friend Emmanuel Maalouf from Australia was doing research about Multiple Use of Water in Limpopo Province, South Africa especially in Sekhukhune District. Just watch this vital informative video....!
Emmanuel's Master thesis is in collaboration with the International Water Management Institute, South Africa under the supervision of Dr. Barbara Van Koppen who is a Principal Researcher Poverty, Gender, and Water and Dr. Graham Moore who is an associate professor at the Melbourne School of Engineering. The project revolves around the concept of Multiple Use Services targeting the use of water for multiple needs within a community. The aim is to optimize current infrastructure and implement guidelines for maximizing productivity within a community. The project considers a case study from South Africa where I spend 4 weeks in the rural areas of Limpopo (Strydkraal and Ga-Mashabela)
In many rural and peri-urban areas, poverty is closely related to the access and management of natural resources. Research has proven a strong correlation between the role of the water sector in poverty alleviation and gender equality (van Koppen, 2006).Single end use of water is described as providing water only for one need for example constructing a well exclusively for drinking. Water infrastructure and policies are organized in a way to exclusively cater for single end use approaches. Therefore, this single end use approach has failed by marginalizing people’s multiple needs, which is a key element to their livelihoods. However, single use solutions are being used for multiple uses such as using the same well for drinking, irrigation, livestock livelihood etc.
This creates conflict on water within a community, deteriorates the water quality and threatens the whole infrastructure.Therefore, an new innovative concept emerged to capture the multiple needs of the community: Multiple Use Services also known as MUS. MUS starts with people’s needs as a fundamental design criteria for supplying water. People need water for an array of daily domestic and productive tasks. Supplying water to communities is considered as a service, requiring both technical and managerial skills. These skills are usually combined to achieve sufficient amount of water with an acceptable quality at an affordable price.Infrastructure plays an important role in improving productivity within a community. The project aims at optimizing current infrastructure and implementing guidelines to maximize productivity within a community. Hence the project’s question is: How can multiple use of water be incorporated in infrastructural projects and water management strategies to target human rights issues within rural communities?
