Water Poverty Index: a Tool for Integrated Water Management

Transcription

1 Water Poverty Index: a Tool for Integrated Water Management Steven D. M. Mlote 1, Carolne Sullvan 2a and Jeremy Megh 2b 1 Tanzana Commsson for Scence and Technology, P. O. Box 4302, Dar es Salaam, Tanzana Emal: Mlote_steven@yahoo.com 2 Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Wallngford, OX10 8BB, UK, Emal: 2a csu@ceh.ac.uk ; 2b jrm@ceh.ac.uk ABSTRACT: For a large proporton of the world s populaton, our nablty to match water demand to ts supply has meant a lack of provson of adequate water for domestc use. Ths has resulted n a sgnfcant loss of tme and effort, especally on the part of women, who are often bear most of the burden of water collecton. Economcally, ths loss of tme represents a loss of human captal, and as a result, reduces the ablty of the household to captalse fully on ts other resources. In order to address ths problem, the challenge for the scentfc and development communty s to dentfy ways n whch ths capacty deprvaton (Sen, 1999) can be reduced. If ths can be acheved, a sgnfcant mprovement n household wellbeng may result and poverty can be eradcated. As water stress ncreases across many natons of the world, the need for effectve water management becomes more pressng. Physcal scence and hydrologcal modellng can provde us wth detaled assessments of water resource avalablty, but lttle to date has been done to lnk ths to our knowledge of human resources and ther geographcal dstrbutons. To acheve ths, a more holstc approach needs to be taken to address the questons of water avalablty, and ts relatonshp to human and ecologcal needs, and for ths reason, efforts are beng made to develop a water management tool known as the Water Poverty Index (WPI). To develop a Water Poverty Index, an nterdscplnary approach s taken to assess water stress, n such a way as to lnk physcal estmates of water avalablty wth the soco-economc drvers of poverty. Ths paper provdes a prelmnary dscusson on how the Water Poverty Index whch s beng developed n selected plot stes n Tanzana, South Afrca and Sr Lanka can be used as a tool for plannng and montorng water management projects and achevements n water provson, and also how WPI wll be used as an ndcator for equtable and more transparent way of resource allocaton as a measure towards ntegrated water management. 1. INTRODUCTION Integrated water management requres approprate use of water resources whle takng nto consderaton many factors relevant for human development. Such factors nclude, water for domestc use, water for agrculture, water for ndustres and water for ecologcal mantenance. Ths stuaton s very complex to explan n a smple language, therefore an ndex has been found to be a feasble way to express such complex stuatons. Water Poverty Index has been developed to express the complex relatonshp between sustanable water resource management and poverty at all levels from a communty, vllage, dstrct, regon and naton. The Water Poverty Index (WPI) has been desgned to dentfy and evaluate poverty n relaton to water resource avalablty. The water Poverty Index tself s an Interdscplnary management tool, whch ntegrates outputs from both physcal and socal scences, wthn a structural framework. It takes exstng montorng programmes further by explctly lnkng soco-economc ndcators of poverty drvers wth water resource assessments, enablng the dentfcaton of those communtes where poverty, socal deprvaton, health, envronmental ntegrty and water avalablty becomes more explct, enablng polcy makers to dentfy approprate mechansms to deal wth the causes of these problems. A number of dfferent approaches have been consdered, wth a vew to producng an evaluaton tool relatng water resources to demands placed upon them. By lnkng ths work to that whch gave rse to Human Development Index, t s antcpated that the WPI wll st neatly wthn the sute of polcy tools avalable for both ntegrated water management and poverty allevaton. In the long run the development and mplementaton of WPI wll promote: Communty empowerment, through provson of better nformaton on local water avalablty and demand, Potental for self-calculaton of water stress by communtes Water Poverty Index: a Tool for Integrated Water Management 1

2 Integrated datasets and a transparent methodology on whch water development projects can be prortsed, A comprehensve capacty buldng programme to enable calculaton of WPI by ndvdual communtes and countres, More explct dentfcaton of natural captal enttlements of communtes, and Lnkages between cross-sectoral themes such as educaton, health, ecologcal demands etc. A number of approaches to calculate the Water Poverty Index has been developed. The followng approaches were tested; Composte Index Smple Tme analyss approach Matrx approach Gap Method Followng a wde range of consultaton, t was concluded that a composte ndex approach s preferred. Usng data generated through household surveys and from other sources, a testbed dataset has been created for 12 stes n three plot countres, and ths has served as means by whch we have been able to test and compare the methodology at the local level. For applcaton at the Natonal level, dataset from publc doman was used. From ths t has been possble to generate WPI scores for 141 countres. Ths paper attempts to present a very comprehensve work whch carred out to develop and test the WPI. Also the paper dscusses the usefulness of WPI as a tool for ntegrated water management as well as the ndcator and montorng tool for water development projects. 2. WPI THEORETICAL BACKGROUND The purpose of the project to develop and test a Water Poverty Index (WPI) s to develop an evaluaton tool for assessng poverty n relaton to water resource avalablty. In keepng wth ths objectve, the project needs to be embedded n an approprate theoretcal framework. Wth respect to a theoretcal understandng of poverty, the approach put forward by Townsend (1979) Sen (1981, 1983, 1995) and extended by Desa (1995) s adopted, and as such, poverty s defned as capablty deprvaton. Buldng on the basc needs approach frst outlned by Pgou (1920), Sen has shown that poverty s the result of a lack of at least one of the basc sklls and condtons that characterse a socety, and as such, s a relatve concept. The occurrence of poverty therefore not only depends on the condtons of lfe on whch a person depends, but on the exstence of a combnaton of crcumstances or functonng whch gves rse to capabltes on whch an ndvdual can buld. These deas have more recently been developed and Desa (1995) has attempted to show that such capablty deprvaton can be more clearly defned, and to some extent, can be quantfed. As Desa puts t, as far as the measurement of poverty s concerned, we are nterested n guaranteeng that people have certan capabltes.e. they have the resources requred to functon n any of the several alternatve ways possble (Desa, 1995). To some extent at least, ths reduces the need to consder soco-cultural factors whch may nfluence what actvtes people actually engage n, and leaves us free to consder what are the factors whch enable people to have an equtable access to vable lvelhood choces. To mantan effectve lvelhood choces, fve basc capabltes have been dentfed by Desa 1995: Capablty to stay alve/enjoy prolonged lfe Capablty to ensure bologcal reproducton Capablty for healthy lvng Capablty for socal nteracton Capablty to have knowledge and freedom of expresson and thought. Havng access to adequate water supples for domestc and productve use can clearly be lnked to most of these capabltes. Not only are the frst 3 addressed drectly through better water management, but also the last 2 are ncorporated wthn any partcpatory management structure that provdes empowerment for communtes to understand ther own resource management problems. The conceptual structure of the WPI tself tres to ncorporate some dmenson of each of these lvelhood capabltes, provdng a holstc perspectve on how poverty may be allevated through more effcent and equtable water management. Tanzana, Sr Lanka and South Afrca Water Poverty Index: a Tool for Integrated Water Management 2

3 When consderng the economc development process, and how a tool such as the Water Poverty Index can contrbute to ths, we need to consder how development tself should be evaluated. It s no longer acceptable to thnk n terms of changes n per capta values of GDP, as t s now recognsed that the development process mpacts n varous ways upon a place and a socety, and attempts to assess all of these mpacts must be made. In the conceptualsaton process through whch the WPI has been derved, attempts have been made to capture these dmensons through ncorporaton of the concepts of captal types as outlned n the sustanable lvelhoods framework (Scoones, 1998 Carney, 1998). 2.1: The Sustanable Lvelhoods Framework Ths approach provdes a framework for analyss n whch lvelhoods provde the central core. The generaton of lvelhoods, and thus the allevaton of poverty, are analysed n terms of captal enttlements. These captal enttlements have been dentfed as: Natural captal Physcal captal Fnancal captal Human captal Socal captal. In one sense, these captal enttlements can be equated to the factors of producton, and these equally have to be combned to generate lvelhood support. For development to take place that provdes opportuntes for contnued welfare growth, these captal types must be utlsed wthout brngng about ther rreversble depleton. Dfferent combnatons can produce smlar outcomes, and a certan amount of captal substtuton s possble, but to ensure a sustanable future, the constrants of earth system capacty must be respected. Impovershed communtes are by defnton short of some or all of the lvelhood captal types. Ther local envronmental, human and socal captal have not been moblsed to create adequate physcal (manufactured) and fnancal captal. As development occurs over tme, there wll be nevtable changes n the extent and avalablty of these lvelhood captals, and such changes can be llustrated as shown n Fgure 1. To address any knd of poverty, access to these captal types must be redstrbuted to ensure that a more equtable outcome for all. The mpact of development, and ts nfluence on lvelhood captals As development occurs, captal avalabltes change ACCESS:Socal captal, Fnancal captal Proporton of each captal type Tme perod USE:Physcal Captal, Fnancal captal CAPACITY:Human Captal RESOURCE:Natural Captal, Water resources ENVIRONMENT: Natural captal Fgure 1 How lvelhood captal enttlements can change Fgure 1 shows how the development process (shown as a shft from tme perod 1 to 2), can result n changes n the avalablty of dfferent captal types. Developng tools to quantfy these captals wll facltate a better understandng, not only of the extent of developmental mpacts, but also ther dstrbuton. Snce the WPI has been desgned to ncorporate these concepts, t wll be able to contrbute to ths mproved understandng. By takng ths more holstc approach to the evaluaton of development progress, we are better able to apprecate the wder dmensons of developmental mpacts, and as a result, promote a more equtable dstrbuton of both ts benefts, and ts costs. In ths way, t becomes much more lkely that all sectors of socety, ncludng the poor, wll beneft from the development process (Sen, 1999). In the past, ths has not always been the case, and there are many examples where development has favoured the rch and powerful groups n socety, at the expense of the poor. It s hoped that the development of the WPI wll contrbute to ths process by provdng more equtable outcomes from water sector developments. Water Poverty Index: a Tool for Integrated Water Management 3

4 2.2: Indcators as polcy tools Indcators provde the means of measurng some aspect of performance or achevement. They have become mportant polcy tools, provdng gudance on ssues whch are dffcult to represent or assess n other ways. They have also become mportant poltcally, by provdng the opportunty for people to evaluate the effectveness of resource allocaton decsons. Whle there s some debate on ther role n nfluencng government polcy, ndcators do offer a relatve measure of achevement whch can serve to drect polcy towards the mprovement of performance. An ndcator s usually constructed by combnng nformaton from a range of avalable data, wth the resultng measure facltatng a comparson of performance relatve to prevous tme perods, or to the performance of others. Some of the better known ndces whch are regularly used for government polcy nclude the consumer prce ndex and the ndex of ndustral output, both of whch measure some economc change over tme. The Human Development Index and the Human Poverty Index are also composte ndces whch evaluate the performance of countres relatve to each other, and over tme. Indces by ther nature are not wthout problems. As tme passes, the relatve mportance of varous components can change, external factors can come nto force and poltcal prortes may change, but nevertheless, the use of ndces as polcy tools has become wdespread. An example of ths s provded by the Human Development Index, whch has been created n response to dssatsfacton whch has arsen wth the use of per capta measures of Gross Domestc Product (GDP) as a measure of development, snce ths captures nothng about the qualty of that development, or the dstrbuton of ts mpacts. The HDI gves a measure of socal and economc progress whch s bult from an average of three separate ndcators: lfe expectancy at brth, educatonal attanment and GDP per capta at purchasng power party (PPP) values. The ndvdual ndces whch make up the HDI are also publshed, so that t s possble to see what s drvng any changes whch are takng place. Publshng the component parts of such an ndex can show where progress needs to be prortsed. There s lttle doubt that the creaton of the HDI has led to a re-evaluaton of the development process, and to a change n the way donor organsatons operate. Nevertheless, the HDI has been crtcsed because t lumps together n one ndex qute dfferent elements wth no common measure. A second crtcsm of the HDI s that most of ts components are hghly correlated wth each other, thus reducng the usefulness of the separate subndces. A thrd crtcsm s that human development cannot be encapsulated n a sngle number and that a range of ndcators, or the sub-components, should be presented separately. In ths project to develop a Water Poverty Index, attempts have been made to overcome some of these problems by carefully selectng sub-components, and by devsng ways of presentng the results of the ndex values n such a way as to ensure the component values are clearly dentfed. Another aspect of socal captal development whch could be strengthened by the WPI s the contrbuton t can make to the evoluton of more effectve natural resource accounts (Proops, 93, Repetto et al., 1989). Ths s an essental element n the achevement of real sustanable development, as t s only when the full envronmental cost of our behavour s understood, can we hope to manage t effectvely. If the WPI were to be mplemented, the datasets whch would be developed would also be of use to the offces of natonal statstcs n the creaton of more effectve water accounts. For more nformaton on the relatonshp between research nto natural resource accounts and the WPI, see Smon, 2002). 2.3: Poltcal and nsttutonal ssues In the past, water problems have often been dealt wth by provdng engneerng solutons, and to a large extent, ths has been productve. Today however, wth ncreasng publc empowerment, devoluton of responsbltes n the water sector, and an ncreasng awareness of ecologcal ssues, such solutons are no longer adequate to address most water management problems. Water shortages do not determne the levels of poverty or prosperty enjoyed by a communty. However, communtes that endure poverty wll n almost all crcumstances face problems n accessng suffcent safe water, both for domestc purposes, and for the generaton of secure lvelhoods. In analysng the reasons for water problems, t s mportant to recognse that water scarcty can be consdered n two ways. Frst order scarcty s the shortage of water tself, whle Second order scarcty s that resultng from lack of socal adaptve capacty (Allan, 2002). The poor lack socal adaptve capacty, and ths suggests that ths aspect of development n the water sector s most pertnent to poverty allevaton. It s now wdely recognsed that nsttutonal ssues are a crucal component of any water ssue, and poltcal wll s a key factor n the success or falure of any attempt to address water problems. Some attempt has been made to ncorporate ths nto Water Poverty Index: a Tool for Integrated Water Management 4

5 the structure of the WPI, but once agan, ths s a prelmnary attempt and there s much work to determne how nsttutonal ssues can be ncorporated most effectvely. In the next phase of the project t s proposed that the varables used to represent ths ssue be extended to capture t more effectvely. Ths may nclude some measure of fnancal commtment to water development used as a proxy measure for poltcal wll. Approxmately half the land area of the world, and perhaps 70 percent of nhabtable land area, s n an nternatonal watershed, where rver flows or lakes are shared (Wolf et al. 1999). Conflcts over water use have been ncreasng n recent years, and though there have been few nternatonal wars fought explctly over water access, t s ncreasngly recognsed as beng a possble source of conflct n the future, especally n areas of hgh populaton densty and decreasng water resources n shared watercourses. Some attempts have been made to develop legally bndng agreements between countres on how ther waters can be allocated. These nclude the 1994 peace treaty between Israel and Jordan that explctly addressed sharng water nformaton, water allocatons, and jont management polces for the Jordan Rver Basn. A smlar example s provded by the formal treaty sgned by Inda and Bangladesh that moves toward resolvng the long-standng dspute over the Farraka Barrage and flow rates n the Ganges/Brahmaputra basns. Another potental source of conflct n the future s that concernng water for food. Postel (1997) suggests that as annual water avalablty drops below 1,700 cubc meters per person, domestc food self-suffcency becomes almost mpossble, and countres must begn to mport water n the form of gran. Ths has been referred to by the term vrtual water, and an ncreasng number of countres are reachng the pont where ther water resources are nadequate to produce adequate food supples, so some degree of dependence on such vrtual water s lkely to occur. It s hoped that by developng a more transparent and equtable framework for water management decsons, the WPI project wll contrbute to a more secure future by reducng potental conflcts over water use. For more detals on ths ssue, see Gleck, Another ssue whch s mportant to the structure of the WPI s that of gender. We have attempted to address ths by takng account of the proportons of water carred by women for domestc use. From the data n ths study, t s clear that women n partcular spend consderable amounts of tme n domestc water collecton. For example, n South Afrca, 73% of domestc water s collected by women, wth 68% beng collected by women n both Tanzana and Sr Lanka. Most of ths water s carred by hand or head, and the labour costs to provde t are huge, especally n the dry season. In South Afrca, women spend up to 119 mnutes per day for ths chore, whle n Tanzana, t s as hgh as 416 mnutes n the dry season. In Sr Lanka, the tme nputs for a normal day are hgh, varyng from 97 to 221 mnutes, mostly as a result of queung. In spte of ths large amounts of tme spent however, the volumes of water avalable per person per day n all sample vllages are stll way below the quanttes recommended by the WHO of 50 ltres per person per day. The fact that women are spendng such a long tme to meet household water needs prevents them from enjoyng the opportunty of beng able to generate a lvelhood proportonate to the effort they have to nvest. Includng gender n ths way does not capture the full mportance of women s role n the water sector, and we would lke to see ths recognzed more fully n the future. As part of the capacty buldng element of the WPI, t s hoped to promote the tranng of both men and women n water management, but t also must be apprecated that n every household, women play a major role n how water s used. It s hoped that more nformaton about other aspects of gender wll be ncluded n future teratons of the WPI. 2.4: Hydrologcal aspects of the WPI Water shortages may relate to the nadequate ablty of a socety to access the small volumes of water needed for drnkng and domestc purposes. They may also result from nadequate water avalablty for crop and lvestock producton n low ranfall areas. There may be a local nadequacy of fresh surface water and groundwater to supplement (through rrgaton schemes), or serve nstead of, sol mosture, whch provdes the water needed n ran fed agrcultural systems. Fresh water for such rrgaton may be local n orgn, or t may have to be moved by gravty from sources thousands of klometers away. (see Allan, 2002). For a detaled account of how water avalablty s addressed n the WPI, (see Megh and Cobbng, 2002). In order to provde a realstc defnton of Resource for use n the development of the Water Poverty Index, water avalablty can best treated n two separate ways: Indrect nterventons can be charactersed by changes to the catchment whch can affect flows, and these also need to be consdered. These could be changes n land use or vegetaton cover (e.g. forestry, croppng types, overgrazng, etc). In many cases, such changes wthn the recent past wll be relatvely mnor and the changes n water avalablty wll not be sgnfcant. In others very substantal changes may have taken place Water Poverty Index: a Tool for Integrated Water Management 5

6 and substantal mpacts may have occurred. Where there s suffcent nformaton, such mpacts should be ncluded n assessng the actual resource. However, n many cases the avalablty of data and the methodologes needed to assess these mpacts are lkely to be lackng, and any assessment may have to be mostly descrptve. Clearly, t s the actual resource avalablty that s most relevant n evaluatng the WPI snce t relates to the water that people are actually able to use. Nevertheless, the prmary or natural avalablty s also of nterest. It provdes a context for the actual resource avalablty, descrbng the settng n whch the assessment s beng made, whether generally water abundant or water poor. It also gves some dea of the potental avalablty, ndcatng what mght be avalable f the deal nfrastructure was n place and functonng correctly. Ths defnton of water avalablty has consderable overlap wth the evaluaton of people s access to water, whch s another component of the WPI process. However, the dstncton s that water resource avalablty relates to the natural envronment and water resources nfrastructure, whle access relates to people s ablty to obtan that water to satsfy ther needs, takng nto account factors such as tme and dstance to collect water, rghts of access and costs. In assessng the avalablty of water t s mplct that ts varablty (seasonalty and nter-annual) or relablty as well as ts qualty must be taken nto account at tme scales approprate to the locaton and types of water use beng consdered. (The change n avalablty over tme, as dstnct to the varablty, s also an ssue, but ths would be measured by change n the ndcators from repeated assessments). Wth regard to water qualty, dfferent degrees of physcal, chemcal and bologcal contamnaton are mportant dependng on the ntended use of the water. For the WPI, the focus for ths frst teraton s on drnkng water, although other uses are also consdered, so avalablty s consdered to be lmted when the qualty does not meet nternatonal or other drnkng water standards. The assessment must also be at the approprate scale. It s not clear how far outsde the vllage, communty or cty area resources should be consdered to be part of the natural avalablty. Ths cannot be specfed n a general way, but wll have to be decded n each case on an ad-hoc bass. In the next phase of the WPI work, t s hoped to develop a more standardsed approach to ths, developng further these technques of small-scale water resource assessment whch are needed for communty level WPI assessment. In addton, developng the basn scale approach may overcome ths dffculty. To calculate the water resources component of the WPI, three separate aspects of water avalablty are examned. For both prmary and actual avalablty these are: Amount of water, expressed as per capta quanttes (e.g. ltres/capta/day) for each source (both surface and ground water), or for the most mportant source where one s domnant. A measure of the varablty or relablty. For the natural system (prmary avalablty) t s the natural varablty, both seasonal and nter-annual, that s most relevant, whle for actual avalablty t s more the relablty of the relevant systems that need to be examned. A measure of water qualty; generally only whether or not t s ft for drnkng and washng s consdered (ftness for other purposes s not ncluded at ths stage). These three values can then be reduced to a sngle ndcator for prmary resource avalablty, and one for actual resource avalablty. An ndcator on a scale of 0 to 10 s developed whch gves a combned assessment of the three factors: amount, varablty/relablty, and qualty of the water. Whle ths sngle ndcator gves an overall result for avalablty of the resource, the nformaton relatng to the three separate aspects s stll valuable, and should be retaned so that the mpacts of the varous components can be seen n the fnal result. The approach used n any partcular stuaton and the accuracy of the results wll depend on the data avalablty and the amount of prevous work, ncludng modellng, that has been done n the area. Broadly speakng, much of the methodology wll be the same whatever the data avalablty, but n stuatons whch are rcher n data and have been well studed, much more detaled modellng wll be possble, and more accurate results may be obtaned. When ths s the case, results can be expressed numercally, ether based on drect observatons or on sophstcated modellng. For stuatons whch are data poor a combnaton of more smplstc modellng wth regonal data and estmaton, household/communty surveys and feld observaton, s needed. Then t may be that only qualtatve ndcators can be determned, expressed on a scale from good to poor, for nstance, but the estmates must always be make bearng n mnd that the results should be assessments of both the prmary (or natural) water resource avalablty, and the actual resource avalablty, as dscussed earler. In the applcatons of ths methodology n the study stes, two of Water Poverty Index: a Tool for Integrated Water Management 6

7 the stes were relatvely data poor, whle n the South Afrcan case, detaled hydrologcal estmates based on sophstcated hydrologcal modellng have been produced, as llustrated by Schulze and Dlamn, The ndcator of resource developed n ths way wll generally express the present stuaton (that s, at the tme of makng the estmates). For nstance, present populaton fgures would be used n estmatng per capta quanttes. However, t would also be possble to use ths approach to examne possble future values of the ndcators by consderng scenaros of clmate change n combnaton wth projected populatons for 10, 20 years ahead, etc. In addton, f the WPI were to be mplemented at regular ntervals, a tme seres dataset would be developed whch would help future water managers to get a more detaled understandng of ther water resources at a much more localsed level. Agan, more work on ths needs to be done n the next Phase of the work to perfect these estmaton technques. 2.5: Addressng the needs of the envronment All water used by human systems s dverted from water flows and storage capacty that were naturally n the envronment before human nterventon occurred. The man competton for water for human use s between bg volumes of water, dverted from the envronment for food producton, and the even bgger volumes of water n the envronment that sustan envronmental servces. These envronmental goods and servces support mllons of people world-wde, and responsble water management must ensure that they are effectvely mantaned. Durng ths phase of the WPI development, attempts have been made to assmlate some measure of ecosystem needs. A specfc queston on natural resource use was ncorporated nto the household survey, and ths revealed some varaton n how people used such resources. In partcular, the data tends to show that poorer households make more use of the envronment, confrmaton that the mantenance of ecosystem ntegrty s mportant for lvelhood support. In addton to ths anthropocentrc perspectve on the mportance of the envronment, there s also the more ethcal and phlosophcal dmenson whch promotes the argument that the ecosystem tself must be mantaned, not for human ends, but to ensure the rghts of other speces to contnue to survve. Ths s consdered mportant snce any one of them may be a key speces, on whch the ntegrty of the global bosphere tself may depend (WCED, 1987). By brngng about ther extncton, human behavour may be havng an rreversble mpact on the physcal condtons on Earth as a whole, so n the absence of perfect nformaton, the precautonary prncple must apply. Ths more ecocentrc perspectve s also emboded n the structure of the Water Poverty Index, as water for the envronment s consdered as a fundamental prerequste for sustanablty and the prncples of Agenda 21 (UNCED, 1992.) For a more theoretcal background on how ecologcal concerns may be addressed n the WPI, see Acreman and Kng, (2002), for how ths ssue has been ncorporated nto the actual WPI calculatons of the composte ndex approach. Testng of the methodology of ncorporatng ecosystems nto the WPI as descrbed n appendx 9.1 has not been completed durng ths Phase of the project, and ths s an area of work for whch there s a pressng need. The methods used to represent ecosystem water needs n the WPI structure at both the mcro and macro level are far from satsfactory, as they are based only on proxy values whch make no contrbuton to how well we understand how much water s needed by any specfc ecosystem type. It s hoped that the new approach for terrestral and aquatc systems, wll be ncorporated nto the next teraton of the WPI project, and ths wll go some way to addressng the queston of how envronmental water demand can be assessed and ncorporated nto the WPI. Ths contnues to be one of the most challengng areas for future work n ths feld, and a number of nsttutons nvolved n the consultaton process durng Phase 1 of the project have ndcated that they are smlarly challenged on how to address the ssue of quantfyng the envronment. Only when ths ssue s clarfed, can a more meanngful and accurate way of managng water for the envronment be derved. 2.6: Partcpaton and empowerment of local communtes The development of the WPI has been an teratve process, nvolvng the partcpaton of several water professonals from many dfferent countres. Ths has helped to dentfy key ssues relevant to such users, and to ensure that they have, where possble, been ncluded n the WPI structure. One of the most valuable aspects of a tool such as the WPI s that t can empower decson-makers to have confdence n the valdty and justfcaton of ther own decsons. Ths s very mportant when consderng the extent to whch decsonmakng s beng devolved n the water sector throughout the world, and the mportance of the decsons such water managers are makng. Water Poverty Index: a Tool for Integrated Water Management 7

8 Another mportant aspect that the WPI can provde f t were to be mplemented s that of communty empowerment. By developng a tool such as ths, local communtes can become more aware of ther resource endowments, and ths can enable them to brng pressure to bear on approprate authortes f nequtable dstrbuton arrangements exst. It s recognsed that the occurrence of water conflcts are ncreasng sgnfcantly at the local level, (Gleck, 2002), and perhaps the development of a transparent decson-makng process wll go some way to reducng the sources of conflct over water use. Another aspect of communty empowerment can be generated f the communty tself s nvolved n ts own montorng process. Ths s an mportant concept on whch partcpatory research s founded (Pretty et al, 1995), and can be a way of promotng cross-cuttng publc polcy, where for example, educaton costs are pad for n knd by chldren contrbutng data about the local water stuaton as part of ther normal educatonal actvtes. 2.7: Clmate change and populaton mpacts on future water resources As we progress through the 21 st century, we know already that we wll be affected by changes n water resources, and the demands upon them. Changes n the global clmate over the next hundred years are almost certan (IPPC, 2001), rrespectve of whether they are human nduced or otherwse. Such changes wll mpact on the spatal and temporal dstrbutons of surface water resources, and may well be charactersed by a more frequent occurrence of extreme events (Megh et al., 1998, Arnell and Kng, 1998). Ths clearly suggests that the avalablty of freshwater resources wll need to be more carefully managed n future, and the development of the WPI can be seen as a contrbuton to the achevement of ths goal. The mpact of human populaton growth s also a major ssue when consderng the future challenges for water management (Falkenmark, 1990). If we examne the effect that ths wll have on demand for water for both domestc use and food producton, we can see that expected rses n demand for these uses are sgnfcant. Ths s llustrated by the graphs shown n Fgure 2, whch llustrate the lkely ncreases n major water use over the next 50 years. Impact of populaton growth on domestc water consumpton Impact of populaton growth on water requred for food producton, Estmated daly domestc water consumpton (Bllon ltres) Latn Amerca & Carbbean South Asa Sub Saharan Afrca Estmated daly water requrement for food producton, bllon ltres Latn Amerca & Carbbean South Asa Sub Saharan Afrca Note: Fgures are based on a consumpton rate of 25 ltres of water per person per day, wth populaton growth rates mantaned at the 1999 level Note: Ths fgure s based on a water requrement for food producton of 1400 ltres of water per day/per person, wth populaton growth rates mantaned at the 1999 level. Fgure 2. Increasng demand for water as human populatons rse. Whle both of these fgures show an exponental rse n water requrements after 2015, the water requred for food producton to feed the rsng human populaton represents a major proporton of accessble freshwater. These fgures are both based on mnmum estmates of water requred for both domestc and agrcultural use, and as the standard of lvng rses n many countres, the actual water consumpton rates may be much hgher than these mnmum, makng the potental stuaton of water defct much more serous. For ths reason, the development of a decson-makng tool such as the WPI s both approprate and tmely, and s somethng that wll help water managers of the future to address these potentally dffcult allocaton decsons. Water Poverty Index: a Tool for Integrated Water Management 8

9 3. CONCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE WPI The project to develop and test a WPI has been conducted for a one-year perod, and n that tme, numerous people have made a contrbuton to the process of dentfyng what s meant by the term water poverty, and how t may be measured. Physcal and socal scentsts, water practtoners and researchers, academcs and other stakeholders from a varety of dfferent countres have had an nput nto the conceptualsaton process for the WPI. The target benefcares of the WPI project are those who may be both water poor, n the sense that they physcally have nadequate water supples, or they may be adaptvely poor (Allan, 2002). 3.1: Identfcaton of key concepts to be ncluded n a holstc WPI measure The consultaton process adopted durng ths development phase of the project has enabled the development of a holstc approach to the assessment of water provson. Consensus has been acheved on what the key ssues are, and there s much agreement that nsttutonal ssues, adaptve capacty and the mantenance of ecologcal ntegrty are essental components of any tool whch attempts to promote equtable and sustanable water management. As a result, the structure of the WPI has been desgned to nclude these ssues, n addton to the more conventonally used water avalablty measures provded by hydrologcal scence. As a result, key components of the WPI have been dentfed as: Resource - Physcal avalablty of surface and ground water Access - The extent of access to ths water for human use Capacty - The effectveness of people s ablty to manage water Use - The ways n whch water s used for dfferent purposes Envronment - The need to allocate water for ecologcal servces Through the ncluson of these dmensons, we are able to capture some measure of the complexty of water management n a more transparent and meanngful way. By producng a standardsed framework whch ncorporates these ssues, we provde a way of addressng the water allocaton problem on a consstent bass, and provde water managers wth structured evaluaton tool whch can nclude not only nformaton on water avalablty, but also demands on that water, and constrants to ts use. To some extent at least, ths overcomes the problems that arse through the use of relatvely crude hydrologcal assessments that take lttle account of the temporal and spatal varablty of water systems. 3.2: Development of the test-bed dataset from three countres In order to create a standardsed dataset on whch the WPI methodologes can be tested, data was collected from four plot study stes n three countres. Half of these stes are rural, and half are urban or per-urban, and the countres nvolved are Tanzana, Sr Lanka and South Afrca. These countres were selected on the bass that the frst two represent some dmenson of stuatons n Afrca an Asa where both water and poverty are mportant polcy ssues. South Afrca was addtonally selected as t has a strong capacty n water research, data generaton and management, and as such, represents a country where the potental to understand water management ssues more explctly already exsts. Furthermore, nsttutonal developments n that country mean that the foundaton has already been lad for the practcal mplementaton of new polcy tools, such as the WPI, n the future. Durng the Conceptualsaton workshop, the ssues of access, use, capacty, resource (avalablty) and the envronment were dentfed as the key components of the WPI structure. A questonnare was desgned at that workshop whch tred to capture varous dmensons of these components, and ths was revsed though an teratve process before beng taken to the feld. Plot trals and enumerator tranng was carred out. Some dfferences n the wordng of the questons were requred by cultural condtons n the dfferent countres, and some respondents nterpreted questons n dfferent ways accordng to soco-poltcal condtons. Snce t was necessary to comply wth the short tme frame set by the project contracted tme table, the data collecton exercse had to be started before the explct need for specfc varables had been dentfed. Communty level data was collected usng household surveys and PRA technques, whle natonal level data was collected from many dfferent regonal and natonal government departments. A total of 1521 households were surveyed n the three countres, wth data beng collected on a whole range of ssues ncludng sources of water, nsttutonal ssues, demographc characterstcs, tme spent collectng water, use of ecosystems etc. Once agan t must be stressed that ths data was collected purely to enable testng of the WPI methodologes, and t s antcpated that n the case of actual mplementaton of the WPI n practce, much of the data needed would be avalable from exstng sources. Ths means that the man task of mplementaton s to gather approprate data from exstng datasets n varous government departments, and Water Poverty Index: a Tool for Integrated Water Management 9

10 supplement ths wth a very small number of specfc questons, whch can be collected from the target communtes. Much of the collected data has been georeferenced for the purpose of creatng GIS databases, whch provde a means of ntegraton of data from dfferent sources. Developng such datasets does provde the opportunty to nvestgate a wde range of dfferent varables and ther spatal relatonshps, but t s a tme consumng process and work on ths aspect s stll ongong. It s hoped n due course to be able to create a detaled pcture of the data from the study stes, ncorporated wth hydrologcal data and other physcal features. 4. PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF THE WPI METHODOLOGIES Indces are by defnton measures of somethng, whch s not easly measured, and as such, there s some trade-off between the accuracy of what the ndex may represent, and the usefulness t may have as a polcy tool. In ths work, we have tred to develop a useful polcy tool whch captures a reasonable measure of poverty and water use, wth a vew to provdng polcy makers wth a tool whch can help them to both prortse expendture n the water sector, and montor ts progress. In keepng wth the project proposal document, the practcal utlty of the WPI tool has been assessed at small plot stes n three countres. In addton, the methodology developed n the composte ndcator secton of our work has been appled at a natonal level, usng publcly avalable datasets. 4.1: The composte ndex approach The WPI s prmarly desgned to provde a tool by whch water managers can evaluate the water stuaton n dfferent locatons n a holstc way. Such a tool wll allow comparsons to be made between communtes, and ths wll enable decsons to be made n a transparent and consultatve way. In addton, f mplemented n such a way as to generate tme seres data, the tool can be used to montor progress over tme. The composte ndex approach draws on the structure and methodologes used by the Human Development Index, and t s based on the dea that a combnaton of relevant varables can provde a more comprehensve nsght nto a partcular stuaton than can a sngle one. In ths way, sub varables to represent the 5 key components (Resource, Access, Capacty, Use and the Envronment) are collected and summed, to generate a holstc value of the WPI. To avod the problem of ncommensurablty, each sub-component s scaled as an ndex tself, based on the range of values on each varable n that locaton. The mathematcal structure on whch the composte ndex verson of the WPI s based, s expressed as follows: WPI N = = 1 N = 1 w X x, w x, Where WPI the Water Poverty Index value for a partcular regon, s the weghted sum of fve components Resource, (R) Access (A) Use (U) Capacty (C) and Envronment (E), each havng a value rangng between 0 and 100. The weght w s appled to each component (X) of the WPI structure, for that regon, wth X referrng to the value of each component. To standardse the result and produce a WPI value of between 0 and 100, the sum needs to be dvded by the sum of weghts as shown: [1] [2] 4.1.1: Local scale applcaton of the composte ndex approach In the case of communty level assessment usng the composte ndex approach, the standard WPI framework s appled n each of the plot countres, usng the test bed datasets. On ths bass, we have generated WPI values for each of the study stes. Where possble, the same varables have been used n each case, but due to dfferences between the stes, ths has not always been possble. For example, some of the ndcators used for the envronmental attrbute are not representatve of the state found n urban areas, whereas they are approprate for the rural areas. The dfferences between urban and rural stes mean that although the same WPI framework can be used, some of the sub-components are dfferent, makng drect comparsons of the values less relable between urban and rural stes. As long as these dfferences are hghlghted however, t s stll possble to make some comparson of the generated WPI values from these stes. Water Poverty Index: a Tool for Integrated Water Management 10

11 Table 1. WPI values for urban locatons n the plot stes, dry and wet seasons a. Dry season Vllage Component values (Dry season) (Urban) Resources Access Capacty Use Envronment WPI Wembez (nformal) Wembez (formal) Majengo Kjenge Awarakotuwa Tharawaththa b. Wet season Vllage Component values (Wet season) (Urban) Resources Access Capacty Use Envronment WPI Wembez (nformal) Wembez (formal) Majengo Kjenge Awarakotuwa Tharawaththa Note: All data presented n these tables represent the stuaton that exsted when the data was collected,.e Table 2 WPI values for rural locatons n the plot stes, dry and wet seasons a. Dry Season Vllage Component values (Dry season) (Rural) Resources Access Capacty Use Envronment WPI Ethemben Latha Nkoaranga Samara Agarauda Tssawa b. Wet season Vllage Component values (Wet season) (Rural) Resources Access Capacty Use Envronment WPI Ethemben Latha Nkoaranga Samara Agarauda Tssawa Water Poverty Index: a Tool for Integrated Water Management 11

12 Table 1 shows the WPI values generated n urban and rural areas n each of the plot countres. For smplcty, these values reflect a score where each of the components used n the WPI framework are gven equal weghts, where w =1 for all varables. It s of course possble to apply weghts to emphasse certan ssues, f that were to be consdered worthwhle by the users. It s mportant however that the baselne (equal weghted) values are computed frst, to ensure that the mpact of applyng weghts s made explct to polcy makers and stakeholders. From the nformaton showng these seasonal WPI values for urban areas, we can see that durng the wet season, much better access rates brngs the WPI scores up. Ths s because n some areas, water supply ponts become unrelable n the dry season, generatng lower WPI values. These fgures gve some ndcaton of how the WPI scores may vary between communtes. The communtes presented here are farly representatve of thousands of communtes n Afrca and South Asa, n urban and rural areas. From ths nformaton we can see that on ths measure, the WPI scores range from 31.1 to 63.2 for urban areas n the dry season, whle n rural areas, WPI scores range from 26.5 to 52.8 for the same perod. As would be expected, wet season scores tend to be hgher (better), tendng to provde evdence supportng the robustness of the WPI methodology. It has to be restated however, that ths work represents the frst teraton of ths approach, and t s hoped that future work wll refne and mprove the methodology. Ths s especally true wth respect to future mprovements n data, whch hopefully wll become more relable, accurate and standardsed : Applyng weghts to the WPI structure. Weghts are used n an ndex to change the relatve mportance of varous components. Ths s usually done to put emphass on ssues, whch are consdered most mportant for polcy goals etc. The techncalty of how weghts can be appled to the WPI framework s an area of further work, whch needs to be addressed : The mpacts of usng a dfferent mathematcal structure for the process of addton of subcomponents. The way sub-components are added together n a composte ndex can have an effect on the fnal score. Ths s because the number of sub-components whch make each component (such as use, access etc) s lkely to be dfferent, and f the 5 major components are constraned to a 20% share of the total WPI score, there wll be a dfferent mplct weghtng attrbuted to each sub-component score. In order to nvestgate ths, we have referred to the method we have used to calculate the WPI here as the unbalanced approach, whle ths alternatve approach wll be referred to as the balanced approach. The ratonale for ths s that t provdes a methodology where every aspect of the ndex and all of ts sub-components has an equal weght. Whle ths method changes the values for each communty by only a small amount, we feel t s a more accurate representaton of equally weghted component varables. The formula for ths approach s expressed as follows: WPI = Where subc A C U E N N 1 N 2 N 3 N 4 w N w subc = N 1 = 1 = 1 w A + N 2 N 1+ 1 w C + N 3 N 2+ 1 wu + N 4 N 3+ 1 w E are all the subcomponents used n Access, Capacty, Use and Envronment components; are the subcomponents used n the Access component; are the subcomponents used n the Capacty component; are the subcomponents used n the Use component; are the subcomponents used n the Envronment component. s the total number of subcomponent used to create the WPI that have got a value; n our case the maxmum number s 21; however for Wembez (formal) N s equal to 12 as few of ts subcomponents have not a value for ths vllage. s the total number of subcomponent used to obtan the Access component; s the total number of subcomponent used to obtan the Capacty component; s the total number of subcomponent used to obtan the Use component; s the total number of subcomponent used to obtan the Envronment component. are the weght assocated wth each subcomponent. They are subject to the followng constrant: N = 1 w = 1 [3] [4] Water Poverty Index: a Tool for Integrated Water Management 12

13 Table 4. Dry season values for all stes, usng the balanced WPI approach Vllage Resources Access Capacty Use Envronment WPI Ethemben Latha Wembez (nformal) Wembez (formal) Nkoaranga Samara Majengo Kjenge Agarauda Awarakotuwa Tharawaththa Tssawa Usng ths approach, we would n fact be able to generate a base-lne value for water poverty assessment. Ths would be partcularly of use f the WPI were to be used for nternatonal comparson. On one hand, t could be the standard used for that purpose, whle a weghted value could be used for the purpose of contrbutng to natonal polcy goals. In addton to explorng ths ssue more fully durng future work, a procedure needs to be devsed to provde a way of representng any gap n the data for any partcular locaton. Ths s because there wll nevtably be some varaton n the data and ts coverage level between countres. If the WPI were to be mplemented on a large scale, a long-term goal would be to devse an approprate standardsed framework for the defnton and collecton of specfc data tems, to eventually overcome the ncompatblty of global water data, whch s so frequently observed today. In addton, to take advantage of mprovements n the feld of computer scence, such data should be stored n an object-orentated format (Jackson and Sullvan, 2002). The advantage of ths s that such a database system can evolve over tme, and as new nformaton s revealed, ths can be ntegrated n an ntellgent way. In addton, not requrng a hghly rgd conceptual structure (as s found n a relatonal database), ths approach enables us to assmlate new relatonshps nto our knowledge base, (Coad and Yourdon, 1990), as scence uncovers them : Cost effectve water data collecton Data approprate for the WPI needs to be collected at a varety of levels. In order to generate approprate data for communty-level water poverty assessments, we propose that ths could be acheved through the ntroducton of a water module nto the school currculum. Such a module can be wrtten to address key ssues of mportance n the water sector, and be desgned for delvery to school chldren aged between 12 and 14. These chldren, especally n rural areas, are very lkely to be nvolved n domestc water provson, and wll be famlar wth locaton of water ponts etc. They are also future water consumers and managers, so to nstl them wth an understandng of water ssues n ther youth, lays the foundaton for the development of a well-nformed future publc. As part of ths nterdscplnary module, geographcal and other nformaton about domestc and other water uses can be collected by the pupls, who of course represent households. Ths data can then be collated by the students and teachers together, and the teacher could be gven the responsblty to complete a preprepared form to record the communty data n a standardsed way 1. Snce there already exst nsttutonal lnks between schools and the natonal statstcs offce, (as requred by the submsson of school enrolment rates), t would be a relatvely smple process to delver ths communty water nformaton to the offce responsble for the collaton of natonal datasets. Ths natonal statstcs offce s also that offce responsble for conductng the natonal census. In addton to the decadal census carred out n most countres, there are several other surveys carred out at varous levels n most countres of the world today. To produce cost effectve WPI data, t would be possble to ntegrate 2 or 3 key questons nto one of such surveys, and the margnal cost of ths data would be relatvely low. If ths margnal cost could be funded by donor agences, ths would provde the means by whch standardsed and ntegrated datasets could be generated wthn the exstng macroeconomc databases. 1 If t were consdered approprate, a tny sum could be allocated to the teacher for each household coverage, and ths would not only buld a sense of ownershp n the database, but would provde the opportunty for teachers to receve a small supplement to ther ncome n return for ther role n the data collecton. Water Poverty Index: a Tool for Integrated Water Management 13

14 Questons to nclude n a natonal census or health survey could be: 1. How much tme (n mnutes) does t take your household each day to collect water for domestc use?(households wth a supply to dentfy themselves as such) 2. What proporton of the tme s your most frequently used water source relable? a) never relable b) relable one quarter of the tme, c) relable half the tme d) relable three quarters of the tme e) relable all the tme Both of these ways of generatng data have been dscussed wth representatves of the Mnstry of Educaton, Economc Plannng Offces, water authortes and statstcal offces n each of the plot countres, and n all cases, support for these novel approaches was expressed. It was also clearly stated that ncorporatng new questons nto these surveys was not a problem, as long as the stakeholders n the natonal datasets expressed ther desre to do so, and the cost of that work were covered from some relable source. It s clear that there s consderable nterest n ths facet of the Water Poverty Index work. There s a need for detaled data, and ths s one way t can be obtaned, and whle ths s far from perfect, the errors resultng from the methodology of data collecton tself can be estmated and mnmsed : Natonal Scale applcaton of the composte ndex approach The same composte WPI framework has been appled to natonal level data collected from publc datasets, n order to generate natonal WPI values for 140 countres. The spatal varablty of water resources and people s ablty to access them does make natonal values rather meanngless, except for the purpose of general comparson. As wth any natonal values, the usefulness of such data for nternal polcy use s lmted, but they do provde a means of comparson of dfferent countres, and can be of use to donor agences and nternatonal organsatons, partcularly wth respect to progress n the water sector, and towards development targets. How the WPI values have been computed at the natonal level s shown n detal n, (Lawrence, Megh and Sullvan, 2002). In ths approach, we have dentfed varables from exstng datasets that are approprate for ncluson n the WPI framework. Where possble we have tred to lnk these to other nternatonal montorng tools, and n partcular we have used data on water supply and santaton from the UNICEF/WHO Jont Montorng Programme (UNICEF/WHO 2000), for capacty varables we have used those from the Human Development Index, (World Bank, 2001), and for the envronmental component we have used data from the Envronmental Sustanablty Index. (World Economc Forum, 2001). Some examples of natonal level WPI values are shown n Table 5, and t must be noted that these values are of a prelmnary nature as there are many modfcatons, whch could be made to refne the valdty and relablty of these measures. One example of such an mprovement would be the ncluson of data relatng to per capta nvestment n the water sector, as a proporton of per capta total fxed captal nvestment. Ths would provde some ndcator of a naton s commtment and poltcal wll towards makng real changes to physcal water management systems. To date, nformaton on ths has only been dentfed for some 40 countres, and so t s hoped that future work would address ths and other possble refnements to the natonal level WPI framework. Table 5. Natonal level WPI values for selected countres Country Resource Access Capacty Use Envronment WPI Fnland Guyana Swtzerland Australa Sr Lanka South Afrca Jordan Tanzana Hat Water Poverty Index: a Tool for Integrated Water Management 14

15 5. EVALUATION AND DISCUSSION In order to evaluate somethng, we need to have some knd of standard to measure t by, and ths s dffcult n ths case as there s at present no real alternatve measure to assess the lnks between water and poverty wth whch we can compare our work. We have however produced a prelmnary assessment of sx dfferent approaches to calculatng a Water Poverty Index, whch n themselves can be compared. Accordng to the decsons made at the consultatve conceptualsaton workshop, the composte approach was preferred, and so the majorty of the tme spent n analyss has been devoted to that approach. We have created an ntegrated framework ncorporatng several ndcators representng characterstcs of the water sector, and on ths bass we have devsed a methodology by whch such an approach can be used to compare stuatons at both the mcro and macro level. To a lesser degree, we have also examned the other approaches dscussed at the conceptualsaton workshop, and some analyss of these s provded. Advantages and dsadvantages of methods examned The composte approach s well tred and tested, as t provdes the bass for the now wdely accepted Human Development Index and many others. One of the man problems of usng a composte ndex approach s that there are stuatons when data of dfferent types has to be combned. For example, we want to combne a measure of monetary value wth one of chld mortalty, along wth several other measures. To avod the problem of ncommensurablty, sub-components used n the composte approach have all been converted so some ndex value of between 1 and 100, thus enablng varables to be combned. A further problem may arse from the fact that all the dfferent components and sub-components are combned by averagng. Ths means that extremes tend to be compressed, creatng the msleadng mpresson of greater homogenety between stes. Ths problem s reduced f the number of varables used to structure the WPI can be reduced. For ths reason t would be worth the effort to nvestgate ths possblty n future. Ths can be done by examnng the degree of correlaton between the varables, revealng potental varables to dscard. Another crtcsm of the HDI s that there s qute a hgh correlaton between the varables used n ts structure. We have tred to overcome ths by attemptng to select varables, whch do not appear hghly correlated. In addton, we have tred to develop a framework, whch produces a result, whch does not reproduce the HDI, so correlaton between the HDI and WPI wll not necessarly be found. Fgure 3 shows examples of how the use, access and resource varables of the WPI correlate to the HDI, whle Fgure 4 shows the relatonshp between the natonal level WPI values and the HDI. Ths s an nterestng aspect to consder when we refer to the natonal level WPI values generated by applyng the WPI framework to data avalable n the publc doman (Lawrence, Megh and Sullvan, 2002), and provsonal WPI values are shown graphcally n Fgure 5. Here, the bars of dfferent colour represent each of the fve WPI components, and the fnal WPI value s the sum of those fve. Comparsons between countres can be made usng ths approach, but t must be noted that some anomales may arse when data from certan sources s mssng or n some way flawed. 5.2: Evaluaton of the WPI by key stakeholders n plot countres The general consensus of opnon s that the WPI provdes a useful structure that can help all stakeholders to have a better understandng about how water needs to be managed. It was stated that to be useful, the tool must be locally relevant, and easy to use and explan to others. It was felt that these crtera could be met by the WPI, and n the study countres, government offcals and representatves of NGOs suggested that specfc areas should be dentfed for more ntensve plot testng of the WPI, wth a vew to apprasng ts value as a natonal polcy tool. Letters outlnng some of the suggestons of how ths could be done, There s lttle doubt that ths process of developng the WPI s tmely, and such a tool s consdered useful and worthwhle, both by local water managers, and by natonal polcy makers. Wth such a degree of local support and nsttutonal nterest, an opportunty would be lost f the chance to mplement the WPI, and develop t further, were to be mssed. Water Poverty Index: a Tool for Integrated Water Management 15

16 Comparng WPI components to the HDI These llustrate how dfferent components of the WPI compare wth scores for the same countres on the Human Development Index (HDI) Fgure 3. Comparng WPI components wth HDI scores Water Poverty Index: a Tool for Integrated Water Management 16

17 Fgure 4. Natonal WPI values for selected countres Water Poverty Index: a Tool for Integrated Water Management 17