Governance and MDGs
Water poverty indicators: conceptual problems
Quantifying 'water poverty'
Authors:
F. Molle; P. Mollinga
Publisher:
IWA Publishing, 2003
In the wake of a growing concern about both the unchecked rise of poverty and the local and global consequences of water scarcity, the relationships between water and poverty are the object of a sprawling literature. Indicators are presented as indispensable tools for informing and orienting policy-making, comparing situations and measuring performance.
This paper looks critically at the potential of water indicators to define and quantify a state of “water poverty” and to inform policy with regard to the remedial actions that need to be taken.
It first attempts to disentangle the various occurrences and perceptions of water scarcity and to show the multifaceted aspect of water scarcity. It then examines the strengths and weaknesses of a number of indicators used in development studies before reviewing several water-poverty indicators recently proposed in the literature.
The subsequent section attempts to understand, in the face of the intrinsic limitations of indicators, their ever-growing popularity and concludes by re-examining the place of indicators between science and policy.
The paper concludes that just as food poverty is a multifaceted issue with complex historical, social and political roots, water poverty cannot be easily reduced to a few numbers. Standards poorly adjust to different physical and cultural settings and their quantitative foundation is often weak
