Multiple-use water systems (MUS) is about moving beyond the conventional sectoral barriers of the domestic and productive sectors. It can be defined as "a participatory, integrated and poverty-reduction focused approach in poor rural and peri-urban areas, which takes people’s multiple water needs as a starting point for providing integrated services."

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MUS in RVWRMP refer to a system that provides multiple-water services for multiple-uses and needs by combining two or more technologies. These may include any combination of gravity-flow drinking water supply, both conventional and non-conventional irrigation, micro-hydro energy, and improved water mills, all depending on the needs of the community itself. Each of the above mentioned are considered equally important uses of water for poor and remote off-grid communities, in the highly decentralized isolated environment. A gravity-flow water supply system that taps into multiple sources and makes sufficient water storage possible for livelihoods applications can also be considered as 'MUS'. 

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MUS is directly linked to livelihoods improvements since making water available in sufficient quantity has opened up new, previously non-existing opportunities. The basic home gardens provide a good example: these were not possible in many places earlier. Also practically all advanced-level livelihoods depend on availability of water.