Enhancing productivity: practical approaches, key issues and problems

In this section we briefly present a number of cases where productive uses of what are primarily domestic water supplies have been built into projects and programmes from the start. The case study from Zimbabwe in Box 6 illustrates how, by designing explicitly for mixed use from the outset, livelihoods can be greatly enhanced without compromising the quality or availability of water for domestic needs. It shows how such mixed uses of water support diversification of livelihoods and help reduce risk - both key needs and objectives of people living in semi-arid areas. The systems provided a safety net for food security during a major drought in 1992 and continued to do so in 2002.

In that instance high-yielding community-managed water points and community gardens were appropriate to local circumstances. But different situations will require different approaches. There are many other examples spanning rural, peri-urban and urban contexts in a wide range of countries where mixed supplies have been developed in different ways:

• In the Chilean coastal desert fog collectors in the village of Chungungo have provided on average 33 litres of water/person/day - sufficient for domestic needs and maintenance of four hectares of community vegetable gardens, trees and a public park. Vegetables are grown for local use and sale. (IDRC, 1998);
• Boreholes meant business for the women of Diass in Senegal. Sales of water from community boreholes to households and herders raised revenue that was partly loaned to women's groups. This was utilised in enterprises like selling fruit, vegetables and groundnuts. Money from water sales and interest on loans was re-invested in the network. In this example, water finances business which finances water. (Touré, 1998);
• In Clare, Bushbuckridge, South Africa a combination of piped water schemes (communal or yard taps), community gardens and now rainwater harvesting, have led to improved water supplies for domestic and productive use. These water supply improvements make use of a mix of different infrastructure types that are suited to the needs of the community and promoted by a local NGO AWARD;
• Family wells in Zimbabwe have been protected and rope and washer pumps installed to pump enough water for both 'domestic' needs and garden irrigation by NGOs like Mvuramanzi Trust (Proudfoot, 2003) and PumpAid;
• In Sudan a project supported by ITDG decided the best way to address water shortages for brick-making was not to drill new boreholes (they tried and failed) but rather to make collecting the water easier through improving the transport by donkey cart of water from existing sources located away from the brick-making areas (Lowe & Schilderman, 2001);
• Rather than supplying more water, drip irrigation systems suited for backyard and small-scale irrigation can potentially save water and labour. Water is stored in a bucket or drum and fed through pipes to vegetables or trees. (Proudfoot, 2003)
• In South Africa , the Mvula Trust and CARE piloted a 'better-than-basic' service level of water supply that focused on providing individual household connections rather than communal standposts using a low-pressure supply to household 'trickle tanks' which store the water for later use, and productive uses of water was promoted;
• The Ikhwelo Project, piloted in the rural areas of South Africa's two poorest provinces, the Eastern Cape and Limpopo, showed that a combination of services like a good water supply and adult education were crucial ingredients of success. They concluded that unless the water sector broadens its infrastructure provision to include an adult education focus the impact and potential productive uses of water will remain limited;
• The Andhra Pradesh Rural Livelihoods Project is supporting backyard crop and tree production as part of watershed development projects. They provide seeds and seedlings suitable for very small plots around houses to families on a subsidised basis and promote the use of bucket-fed drip irrigation kits that cost less than US$5.