This study is aimed to judiciously generate the desired alternative configurations of a given single-contaminant water-using system under the constraints of minimum freshwater usage, minimum match number and minimum total throughput. A generalized source-shift procedure is proposed for this purpose, which can be applied manually by evolution from a preliminary network which requires minimum freshwater usage. Systematic implementation guidelines are also provided to perform the evolution steps. In addition, the minimum interconnection number can be estimated in advance and the total number of promising alternative solutions can also be determined a priori. Six examples are presented in this paper to demonstrate the effectiveness and benefits of applying our method. (C) 2011 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.