What this TOP is about

This Thematic Overview Paper (TOP) looks at this broader range of uses which people allocate to their water supplies. It looks in particular at productive activities and micro-enterprises within households in villages, towns and cities in developing countries.

It examines how domestic water supplies can become productive and how this can contribute to people's livelihoods, particularly those of women and the poor, thus increasing the impact of an intervention. This approach challenges the traditional assumption that water delivered to people's homes should be for domestic purposes alone. At it's heart lies the belief - supported by a rapidly increasing body of empirical evidence - that by adopting a broader perspective the WATSAN sector can more effectively contribute to tackling rural and urban poverty and at the same time better address perennial WATSAN problems such as sustainability and cost recovery.

Neither the TOP, nor the practitioners on whose experiences it builds, would advocate that water supply and sanitation projects attempt to start taking on large irrigation schemes. The focus is rather on those typically small-scale agricultural (or industrial) activities which exist at the intersection with the domestic water sub-sector (Figure 1). Because these activities are small-scale and often informal they risk dropping through the gaps - forever destined to be 'somebody else's problem'. But, despite their typically diverse and fragmented nature, they are absolutely critical to the health and wellbeing of the people who engage in them.

Figure 1: Where to look for productive uses of water: at the sectoral interface

In common with many others, we suggest adopting a 'livelihoods centred approach' as a framework for addressing these overlooked issues. We see that as a useful means of developing and applying methods and tools to address the multiple roles of water supply. In so doing we seek to align ourselves with a much broader movement in development and natural resource management which seeks to deal more holistically with development issues, reaching across traditional 'sectoral' boundaries and putting people and their livelihood strategies firmly at the centre of the developmental process.

While this paper focuses on the application of livelihoods concepts to productive water uses at the household level, a similar approach is applicable in many other areas of water supply. We hope this paper will encourage readers to consider these wider possibilities.

Contents

This document is divided into six sections. Readers may wish to follow the whole document, or dip into the sections of greatest interest by following the links below.

Section 1, Rethinking basic needs: expands the arguments of the introduction and provides some conceptual background to the multiple roles and benefits of domestic water supplies.

Section 2, Enhancing productivity: some practical examples of mixed use of water supplies and some of the key issues that need to be dealt with in this approach. The section provides more evidence from cases around the world to support the contention that water plays a wide role in people's livelihoods.

Section 3, Taking a livelihoods centred approach to domestic water supply: The 'what and why' of using the livelihoods approach to domestic water supply projects. The section briefly introduces the concepts behind the livelihoods approach and examines some of the benefits to be gained from adopting it.

Sction 4, How it can be used: ideas for 'how' to adopt a livelihoods-centred approach to WATSAN. A framework of principles and guiding questions is provided, as well as suggestions for tools and methods to answer them. Answering the questions will ensure that the main aspects of a livelihoods approach are captured. A worked example is included.

Section 5, Summary and conclusions

Section 6, TOP resources: TOP books, articles and manuals (annotated) and references, TOP websites, and TOP contacts.