The Water poverty index

In 2002 the British Centre for Ecology and Hydrology published the first water poverty index (WPI).
The index uses five parameters:
1. resources – the quantity of surface and groundwater per person, and its quality
2. access – the time and distance involved in obtaining sufficient safe water
3. capacity – how well the community manages its water (and health)
4. use – how economically water is used in the home and by agriculture and industry
5. environment – ecological sustainability (green water)
Each of the parameters is scored out of 20, to give a maximum possible score of 100
Poverty
1. Poverty and water poverty go hand in hand, but they are part of a wider equation.
2. Lack of water hampers attempts to reduce poverty and encourage development.
3. Improved water supply and sanitation can increase food production, bring better health and provide higher standards of wellbeing.
4. Water wealth in developed countries brings cheap water, irrigation, energy and economic growth.
5. Some commentators have dubbed water ‘the lubricant of development’.
Contrasting water extremes
1. Canada and Ethiopia represent the two extremes of the water and development spectrum.
2. Canada
  1. Canadian households use 800 litres per person per day to ‘wash, cook and flush’.
  2. Water is also used for lawns, gardens, parks and swimming pools.
  3. Problems here are about rising water bills and leakages.
3. Ethiopia
  1. In Ethiopia the water consumption is 1 litre per person per day, much of it fetched daily from a shared source.
    1. This water has to meet all needs.
  2. Since Ethiopia is a poor country, its water problems relate to water shortages, pollution and the risk of disease.
  3. The fact that the population is concentrated in widely dispersed rural villages and overpopulated urban slums aggravates the problems.
The price of water
1. As demand begins to overtake supply in the global market, water costs look set to follow oil and food prices upwards.
2. Homeowners in Washington DC (USA) pay about $350 for a year’s water (72 cents per m3).
3. In many developing countries, water is free in rural areas, but it often needs to be carried daily over long distances and is likely to be contaminated.
4. In the largest cities, slum dwellers may have to buy water from private vendors whose prices often exceed $1 per m3.
  1. This can be many times the price of tap water elsewhere in the city
5. The price of freshwater depends upon transport costs and the level of demand, less any subsidy.
  1. Californian cities import water over hundreds of kilometres from the Colorado basin. Lifting water from depth and moving it over hills by pumps is energy- expensive.
  2. Water prices in Australia’s markets peaked at nearly 75 cents per m3 in December 2006, having increased twentyfold in the year as a result of prolonged drought.
  3. In India, water scarcity has prompted some farmers to profit by selling their abstracted water instead of using it themselves for irrigation.
  4. Water subsidies can be large. In the city of Delhi, they make up 80% of the cost of providing municipal water. Farmers in California use roughly one-fifth of the state’s water, yet pay only 1 cent per m3 for it.

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The Water poverty index

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	Created by Jodie Goodacre over 10 years ago