Increased interest in Multiple Use Services in Nepal

At the premises of NEWAH (Nepal Water and Health), an informal get-together was organised on 11 July 2008, to find out if there is sufficient interest for starting a MUS (Multiple Use Services) Nepal platform or network. The initiative emerged from a training programme on MUS that was carried out by NEWAH and IRC together in the context of a EC-rehabilitation project in Western Nepal. The first well-known documented experiences with MUS are from IDE in 2003, which developed as a logical consequence of their micro-irrigation schemes. Actually, one cannot speak to anybody from the water sector in Nepal who has not seen a community, which is already applying gravity water supply schemes for both domestic and productive uses. During the past years there is also an increased interest from the WASH sector in assessing and planning of the different water uses at community and the decentralised administrative levels. To mention a few: WaterAid has documented experiences of Community Water Resource Management (CWRM); Kitchen Gardening based on grey wastewater in WASH projects by NEWAH Communities and local government have developed Water Use Management Plans in Helvetas supported programmes; and, the Rural Village Water Resource Management Project supported by Finnida.

In the meeting all felt a strong need and potential to share each others experiences and join forces to apply at a much larger scale a sustainable MUS approach. The efforts of the past included the establishment of a so-called learning alliance on MUS and the organisation of national and district workshops, which received the formal support from the relevant ministries at the national level. However, in the field hardly anything has changed. For example, the local government has a small budget allocation to apply MUS in micro-irrigation schemes, but in general the local engineers are often not aware or feel that it is beyond their mandate.

The participating organisations: WaterAid Nepal, NEWAH, Concern International and IDE agreed that they will call for a wider meeting within a month that may lead to a revival of the MUS Nepal platform.