Water security: Old concepts, new package, what value?

Abstract

“Water security” has come to infiltrate prominent discourse in the international water and development community, and achieving it is often viewed as a new water sector target. Despite the elevated status that the concept has increasingly acquired, understandings of the term are murky and quantification is rare. To promote a more tangible understanding of the concept, this paper develops an index for evaluating water security at a country level. The index is comprised of indicators in five components considered to be critical to the concept: (i) basic needs; (ii) agricultural production; (iii) the environment; (iv) risk management; and (v) independence. Achieving water security in these components can be considered necessary but insufficient criteria to measure the achievement of security in related areas such as health, livelihoods, and industry. After populating indicators with data from Asia‐Pacific countries, results are interpreted and the viability of methods is discussed. This effort comprises an important first step for quantifying and assessing water security across countries, which should spur more concrete understanding of the term and discussion of its added value.

Reductionist and integrative research approaches to complex water security policy challenges

“…Apart from the blending of social attributes with physical attributes to improve water security indicators (e.g. Lautze and Manthrithilake, 2012;Mason, 2013;Norman et al, 2013), however, the water security research community on the whole has hesitated to move in this direction.…”

Analysis of Gender and Other Social Dimensions of Household Water Insecurity in Ngamiland, Botswana

“…Gender and other social dimensions of water insecurity experienced by households in various settlement categories of Ngamiland are analysed using the actor-oriented approach (Long, 1988(Long, , 1992Long & van der Ploeg, 1989b;Long & Van der Ploeg, 1994) and the concept of water security (Cook & Bakker, 2012;Grey & Sadoff, 2007;GWP, 2000;Lautze & Manthrithilake, 2012;Vörösmarty et al, 2010). 'Security' here refers to freedom or protection from serious risks and any threats to human well-being (Soroos, 1994).…”

Evaluation of Water Security in Kathmandu Valley before and after Water Transfer from another Basin

“…Nepal positions itself 43rd out of 48 Asian and Pacific countries and fourth among six South Asian countries with a national water security (NWS) index of 2 out of 5. For the five dimensions of water security considered in the ADB (2016) study, out of a possible score of 20, Nepal got 5.3 for households, 11.3 for the economy, 6.0 for urban, 10.7 for the environment, and 4.0 for resilience. This reflects water insecurity in all aspects.…”

“…Therefore, several indicator-based water security-related indices have been developed to quantify water insecurity or security [6,7]. Different researchers have defined components of water security differently and have included: basic needs, agricultural production, environmental flows, risk management, and independence [6]; household, economic, urban, environmental, and resilience to water-related disaster [8]. Other indicators and indices that are used for similar purposes include the basic human need index [9], the water stress index [10], the watershed sustainability index [11], the water supply index [12], the water security status indicator [13], and the water poverty index [14].…”

“…Translating water security into numerical terms helps clarify the concept and reduce ambiguity. Therefore, several indicator-based water security-related indices have been developed to quantify water insecurity or security [6,7]. Different researchers have defined components of water security differently and have included: basic needs, agricultural production, environmental flows, risk management, and independence [6]; household, economic, urban, environmental, and resilience to water-related disaster [8].…”