## 1 Introduction  
South Africa is extremely vulnerable and exposed to the impacts of climate change [1] within both its socio-economic and environmental settings. Increased occurrence of extreme climatic events comes with negative implications for infrastructure, health, production and economic growth. These impacts will increase water supply pressure in already water-stressed environments [2]. The marginalized and poor are particularly affected by the impacts of climate change [3]. An indirect benefit of improved and secure water supply is that health risks of dependent communities are minimized. This is particularly important in the context of pandemics as people with the least access to essential services such as water will feel the most dramatic effects. Large portions of the rural population in South Africa lack access to basic hand-washing facilities in their homes or they experience partial access and regular shut-offs. Investing in long-term water security and access to clean water and sanitation is therefore a matter of public health. This advocates for a balanced planning and response to climate change while adapting to the new normal. In the South African context, where water resources are fully allocated in most catchments, shallow groundwater and alluvial aquifers of ephemeral (or dry sand bed) rivers are potential alternative sources of water. Groundwater is notoriously under-utilized, although it is heavily relied upon especially in rural areas [4]. Water resources contained within alluvial aquifers have been utilized for centuries by local communities, in particular in resource-poor rural areas through low-tech and unregulated means [5; 6]. Previous research on an ephemeral river in the Limpopo Province of South Africa (Molototsi River) indicated that sustainable utilization of these groundwater resources is possible, provided this is carried out in a controlled and monitored manner [7]. Given the fact that the majority of the poor and water/food-insecure households in South Africa are still concentrated in rural areas, there is an opportunity to improve water availability, and shallow groundwater and ephemeral rivers have the potential to be alternative water sources for multiple uses (domestic, agricultural crop and livestock production). This warranted the investigation of possible interventions to improve water security in light of the changing climate. One of the potential interventions refers to a recently developed approach for water supply and provision of water services in rural areas, namely Multiple-Use Water Services (MUS) [8]. The multiple-use water scheme is a community-based water services provision system built on the principles of decentralization, community participation and empowerment, with the objective of improving the provision of water services and the impacts on livelihoods. Examples of real-life MUS applications in several countries were presented by [8; 9; 10]. These examples of participatory MUS in remote rural areas were meant to provide water for a multitude of users, namely drinking water supply, water for sanitation and hygiene, conventional and unconventional irrigation, micro-hydropower, water mills and livestock watering. Community participation is required to define the sharing of costs and benefits, manage competing demands, prevent over-use of water sources and achieve necessary institutional reforms in the inception, design and planning stages. The main conclusions from these studies were that the participatory MUS approach improved the access, availability, quality and reliability of water services in households; however, an enabling environment is required at the level of local governance to promote inter-sectorial collaboration and community participation. Many rural communities in South Africa are not supplied with grid electricity. Renewable energy is a logical route that could be adopted in order to secure sufficient and reliable energy for water supply in remote areas while increasing the resilience to a changing climate.