Ethiopia is known for being a water tower in the continent. It has a considerab le potential ofrni i 0-i 20 billion cubic meters of surface water and 2.6 bill ion cubic meters of ground water.rninspite of such potentials, it is one of the countries with mall proportion of water tapped forrndomestic as well as productive activities. Recently different interventions against this challengernin the water sector started /0 emerge. MUS approach is one of them. it is a new conceptrnintroduced in the water sector. MUS is understood as "a participatOlY, integrated and povertyreductionrnfocused approach in poor rural and peri-urban areas, which takes people 's multiplernwater needs as a starting point for providing integrated services, moving beyond thernconventional sectoral barriers of the domestic and producti ve sectors" (Moriarty et aI, 2004).rnVarious interventions were there by societies and other organizations to actualize the MUSrnconcept on the ground Application of de facto MUS and upgraded and planned MUS are somernof the interventions. The study focuses on upgraded and planned MU . The main objective of thernstudy is to assess the challenges and opportunities of multljJle use water systems (MUS) in GorornGutu and Meta woredas of East Hararghe zone. Samples were selectedfrom two kebeles Fomrnthe two woredas.rnBoth primary and secondary data were collected using various techniques like surveyrnquestionnaire, key in/ormants interview, focus group discussion and other instruments like visitsrnof sites and informal interviews. Secondmy data were collected from review a/ published andrnunpublished materials ji-om concerned organizations. The cullected data were coded in SPSS.rnDescriptive statistics, inc/uding tables of percentage distrihutiol1, frequency distribution andrnothers were usedjor the analysis of the coded data. FiKlIres (charts) were also used for morernillustrations.rnThe findings of the analysis showed that the MUS fac ilities existing in the selected kebelesrnprovide services for households who are accessing water for both domestic and productivernactivities. The result of the data analysis also showed that altitude of households to MUS isrnpositive as majority of them are appreciative of the benefits others and themselves captured inrntheir lives as a result of the establishment of the MUS faci lities. More over, there is greatrnaspiration of non user households to get chance to use the MUS fac ilities as beneficiaries inrnorder to bring about monumental changes. However, there are some challenging situations tornthese MUS systems in the target woredas. These include reduction in the amount of water of therndeveloped springs, unsafe water f rom the springs, simple damage of some parts and others.rnSolutions were suggested Fom the point of view of re,spondents, differe nt stakeholders andrnresearcher. These and other information were used to make concluding remarks. Basing thernfacts obtainedFom the data analysis, some recommendations were made.