A Holistic Approach to Alleviating Water Poverty in Gresik Regency

Population growth and rising water demand, climate change, severe droughts, and land-use changes are among the top severe issues in Iran. Water management in this country is sectoral and disintegrated. Each authority evaluates water based on its final intention and there is no commonplace indicator for evaluation programs. In this research, we used the Water Poverty Index (WPI) to map the status of water scarcity in a north-eastern province of Iran. Water poverty was measured based on five components of “Resources”, “Access”, “Capacity”, “Use”, and “Environment”. The scores on each component were then aggregated using the weighted multiplicative function, assuming equal weights for all components. The overall WPI was evaluated to be 41.1, signaling an alarming and serious water poverty in the study area. Based on the results, Azadshahr (29.1) and Gorgan (61.6) districts had the worst and the best conditions among all cases, respectively. To better understand the importance of WPI components, four weighting alternatives were used; however, none of them resulted in a tangible improvement of WPI index. The cross-correlation between the components was also evaluated, with Access and Capacity showing significant results. Leaving out “Capacity”, however, reduced WPI by 8.1. In total, “Access”, “Capacity”, and “Use” had the highest correlation with WPI, implying that any attempt to improve water poverty in the province must firstly tackle these issues. This study showed that WPI is an effective indicator of water scarcity assessment and could be used to make priorities for policy-making and water management.

This study assesses water scarcity in rural India using the Water Poverty Index (WPI). The study considers WPI in three communities to comparatively assess the factors that contribute to the level of water poverty in the comparable communities. We created community profiles to evaluate water scarcity across five components of the WPI framework: resources, access, capacity, use, and environment. The overall WPI score recorded for the respective communities includes Kalinagar (42), Barapita (53), and Nagla Chandi (41), all of which fall within the unsafe categories. Component indices highlighted binding constraints: Capacity = 0.00 (Kalinagar), 0.25 (Barapita), and 0.00 (Nagla Chandi); Access = 0.43, 0.29, and 0.57; Environment = 0.00, 0.46, and 0.20, respectively. In Nagla Chandi, a co‐designed package (Village Water and Sanitation Committee, waste management protocols, price rationalization for treated water, and 20‐L storage) increased treated water patronage from a mean of 3–23 households. Correspondingly, the village WPI improved from 48.6% (unsafe) to 65.6% (safe), driven by gains in Capacity (0 → 0.50) and Environment (0.20 → 0.40). This research highlights the need for sustainable water management interventions and greater community involvement in rural areas. The limited community participation in water management and local oversight of the water supply systems is highlighted as a pressing area for policy intervention. Use of the WPI not only helps to determine the level of water poverty in a community, but it also helps to identify the areas for policy intervention and for defining community‐based solutions to address water scarcity challenges and for sustainable water management. The WPI can thus be an important tool to help address water scarcity across rural India by identifying the local challenges to the realization of Sustainable Development Goal 6.

Water Poverty Index (WPI) is a simple and transparent tool to measure water stress at the household and village levels so that local an'd national water agencies can manage problem of access to water, quality and variability; water uses and capacity for water management considering environmental aspects. The research aims to calculate WPI in the upper Bagmati river Basin of Nepal in order to analyse the real water situation in the project area. WPI was estimated using five key components through the consultation with wide range of stake holders, policy makers and scientists for resource, access, capacity, use and environment.The WPI was calculated for the upper Bagmati river Basin together with High–Medium–Low category scale and interpretations. WPI intensity scale depicts Sundarijal and Lubhu are in a range of very low water poverty, which means the water situation is better in these two areas. Daman region has a medium level, meaning this region is located into poor-accessible water zone. Kathmandu, Sankhu and Thankot have a low to medium low WPI, what characterize them as neutral. WPI can be used as an effective tool in integrated water resources management and water use master plan for meeting sustainable development goals. Based on the observation, the water agencies required to focus over water-poverty interface, water for sanitation, hygiene and health, water for production and employment generation, sustainable environmental management, gender equality, and water rights.

This article details an application of Water Poverty Index (WPI) to evaluate state of water resources in the context of Nepalese river basins with a case study of Kali Gandaki River Basin (KGRB) located in western Nepal. Considering that water poverty issues and indicators to represent them are location-specific, selecting suitable indicators with due care of local context and data availability is essential to apply the WPI, a holistic tool for water resources planning and management. In this study, it suggests and describes a set of ten WPI indicators and twelve variables suitable in the Nepalese context. The selected set of indicators and variables is used to discuss water poverty situation in the study basin as a whole, spatial variation within the basin and variation at different spatial scales in the basin, that is, basin, sub-unit of the basin (district) and sub-unit of the district (Village Development Committee (VDC)). The study result shows that WPI varies widely (from 37.1 to 56.5) within the study basin suggesting the need of location-specific policy interventions. At different spatial scales, there is no clear trend; however, analysis of the WPI components shows higher resources and access at basin level; higher use, environment and capacity at sub-sub-unit of the basin level. Such variations suggest the need of scale-specific policy interventions and management plans to improve overall water poverty situation in the study basin. Overall, the WPI helped to examine the water poverty situation and recommend priority areas of policy interventions for the improvement of water-poverty situation in the basin.

Water poverty, measured by the Water Poverty Index (WPI), is traditionally applied at country and community levels. This study presents a livelihood-inclusive approach for measuring WPI at the livelihood group level. The specific objectives are to evaluate present and future WPIs for different livelihood groups, such as large and small male farmers, female farmers, male and female industrial workers and economically inactive women. Primary data are collected from three peri-urban areas around Dhaka using a mixed approach, including a semi-structured questionnaire survey of 260 respondents. The WPIs are calculated by using a weighted multiplicative function, and the component weights are assigned by principal component analysis. The results show that the economically inactive women are presently the most water-poor group, with a WPI value of 41, whereas the small male farmers would be the most water-poor group in the future, with a WPI value of 34. Environmental changes, such as high temperature, variability in rainfall and surface water, lowering of groundwater level, rapid population growth and unplanned urbanization, are found to be responsible for the dynamism in WPIs for different livelihood groups. The Resource and Environment components should be paid immediate attention in order to protect peri-urban livelihood groups from future water poverty.

Since climate change, intermittent droughts with various severities, poor management and uncontrolled abstraction of water resources, and inattention to the balance of these resources have caused the water crisis in recent decades, it is vitally important to study the water scarcity, its changes in the future, and the effect of climate change and drought on the scarcity through appropriate management policies in the agricultural sector. To achieve this goal, the present study selected the Fasa plain in Iran and calculated its water poverty index (WPI) from 2008 to 2018 using parametric and non-parametric statistical tests. Also, the study calculated the correlation coefficient between the WPI and climate change and drought in the study area. It then evaluated the effects of water resources management policies in the agricultural sector on the poverty index. The results showed that water consumption had the greatest weight in calculating the WPI. The WPI has fluctuated between 0.297 and 0.678 in the Fasa plain, and the worst situation of water poverty was experienced in 2014. Despite its insignificance, the downward trend in the WPI showed that water resources management has become more unfavorable over time. Finally, it was concluded that the WPI in the Fasa plain was more dependent on drought than on climate change in the short term. Therefore, managing water resource consumption in this plain is vitally important, especially in drought conditions. The results also showed that reducing water consumption in the agricultural sector can significantly improve the WPI. Therefore, solving the water crisis in this plain, given the drought conditions and its future trend, requires policies improving water-use efficiency in the agricultural sector.

Water security is a widely concerned issue in the world nowadays. A new method, water poverty index (WPI), was applied to evaluate the regional water security. Twelve state farms in Heilongjiang Province, Northeastern China were selected to evaluate water security status based on the data of 2006 using WPI and mean deviation grading method. The method of WPI includes five key indices: resources(R), access (A), capacity(C), utilization (U) and environment (E). Each key index further consists of several sub-indices. According to the results of WPI, the grade of each farm was calculated by using the method of mean deviation grading. Thus, the radar images can be protracted of each farm. From the radar images, the conclusions can be drawn that the WPI values of Farm 853 and Hongqiling are under very safe status, while that of Farm Raohe is under safe status, those of Farms Youyi, 597, 852, 291 and Jiangchuan are under moderate safe status, that of Farm Beixing is under low safe status and those of Farm Shuangyashan, Shuguang and Baoshan are under unsafe status. The results from this study can provide basic information for decision making on rational utilization of water resources and regulations for regional water safety guarantee system. Keywords: mean deviation grading method, water poverty index, water security evaluation, weighted average method DOI: 10.3965/j.issn.1934-6344.2008.02.008-014 Citation: Fu Qiang, Gary Kachanoski, Liu Dong, Wang Zilong. Evaluation of regional water security using water poverty index. Int J Agric & Biol Eng. 2008; 1(2): 8

This study presents a comprehensive longitudinal assessment of water poverty in Morocco, a severely water-stressed nation, using the multidimensional Water Poverty Index (WPI) for the period 2010–2022 at a national scale. Unlike previous cross-sectional analyses, a time-series approach has been employed to dynamically track changes, addressing a critical gap in WPI literature. Utilizing 16 variables across five WPI components, the analysis reveals significant fluctuations in overall water poverty, with the WPI notably ranging from a low of 43.90 in 2011 to a high of 57.91 in 2021. The Resource and Use components emerged as the primary drivers of these variations, highlighting the profound impact of increasing water scarcity due to climate change and escalating agricultural demand, which accounts for nearly 85% of total water consumption. Based on these findings, the study provides data-driven policy recommendations for enhanced governance, conservation strategies, and agricultural sector transformation. The implications underscore the urgent need for targeted interventions to improve water use efficiency and resilience in Morocco. This research demonstrates the WPI's utility as a robust, transparent, and dynamic monitoring tool, offering valuable, replicable insights for sustainable water management in other water-stressed developing economies globally.

The research paper explores the intricate relationship between Water Poverty and socio-economic development in India at the sub-national level. Against the backdrop of India holding merely 4% of the world's freshwater resources but accommodating 17% of the global population, a critical water crisis is evident and projected to escalate. Leveraging cross-sectional data from Indian states/UTs, the study creates the Water Poverty Index (WPI) to gauge water scarcity and the Human Development Index (HDI) to measure socio-economic development. Using linear regression, the study investigates the impact of WPI components, i.e. water resources, accessibility, and environmental water needs, on human development. The states of Telangana and Haryana have performed poorly on the WPI, whereas Goa, Kerala and Meghalaya have emerged as top performers. Interestingly, the access components of the WPI have shown a significant positive correlation with human development. While water poverty components have been used to assess water resources, nothing is known about how these components relate to HDI in India. The study's findings can help policymakers better understand the nuances of water scarcity's effects and use them to advance India's socioeconomic growth, predominantly in states with high rates of water poverty, through the channels of better accessibility and investing in society’s capacity building.

Assessing the spatial variation of water poverty determinants in Maharashtra, India

ABSTRACTIt has long been recognized that there is a link between sustainable development, poverty and consistent access to useable water. Increased population is requiring more water and changing climate is altering the hydrological cycle making the water less accessible at the time when it is required. Combining the measurement of water availability and the socioeconomic capacity towards its access gives new insights in the fields of water resources management and poverty alleviation, which ultimately address the agenda of sustainable development. This paper customizes the water poverty index (WPI) indicators to encompass the climatic extremes and social settings to analyse the water stresses to the community people and their capacity to manage the water extremes focusing on the water availability in climatic variability condition in Karnali river basin in western Nepal. The indicators of the WPI were based on the multiple aspects of water focusing to water quantity and availability. The WPI is not only a useful tool to monitor progress; but it can even be used to identify areas of greatest need, thereby enabling prioritization of action in the water sector.

For developing countries, an adequate domestic water supply is conventionally assessed based on the proportion of communities that are covered by improved water sources. However, it is difficult to evaluate water poverty accurately, as it is multidimensional. For this reason, this paper used the Water Poverty Index (WPI) to measure water poverty in rural communities of arid areas in China. This study also uses the Least Square Error (LSE) model to analyze the influencing factors of water poverty. Based on the WPI and LSE, the results showed that the rural communities of Sheshu, Fanyao, Dongcao, Qiaodi, and Gouershang (listed in order of priority of need for intervention) are in a water poverty situation. In rural communities with high water poverty, the suggested priority order for the study was environment, capacity, use, resources, and access, with the environmental factor needing to be improved. The results are useful for prioritizing areas and identifying the extent of the need for policy intervention on different scales. The research findings are intended to complement the evaluation of water poverty and to provide a strategy for regional water resources management to relieve water poverty.

An examination of the mitigation effect of vegetation restoration on regional water poverty: Based on panel data analysis of 9 provinces in the Yellow River basin of China from 1999 to 2019

This study aims to integrate underutilized crops (UCs) into the food system to address climate change impacts, and food -water insecurity. UCs have immense potential to mitigate food shortages, yet their role remains largely unexplored in mainstream agricultural and food security strategies. A multidisciplinary approach using social psychology, resource-based theory (RBT), and a new ecological paradigm was used to investigate factors influencing UCs adoption and their potential contribution to water and food insecurity in South Africa. The water poverty index (WPI) and household food insecurity access score (HFIAS) were used to determine the water and food insecurity status of rural households. The study found that UCs cultivation was driven by awareness, access to extension advisory services, and climate information. The findings indicate that adopting UCs significantly improves water and food insecurity in South Africa. Consequently, households that integrated UCs into their farming systems experienced higher WPI scores, reflecting improved water availability and conservation, as UCs require less water than conventional crops. Likewise, lower HFIAS values suggest that UCs enhance food insecurity by diversifying diets, stabilizing food access, and reducing seasonal hunger. Statistically, households in Limpopo, Mpumalanga, and North-West provinces who adopted UCs saw 25.18 (21%), 31.03 (26%), and 28.77 (24%) rise in WPI and HFIAS compared to those who did not embrace UCs, respectively. These results highlight the potential of UCs as climate-resilient crops that mitigate water scarcity and food insecurity, making them a viable strategy for enhancing rural livelihoods amid climate change. Therefore, prioritizing UCs cultivation could build more resilient agricultural systems, address water scarcity and improve food security.

Poor access to water is often linked to poverty, human welfare, health, nutritional status, and household labour. This paper is aimed at contributing to the debate surrounding water poverty in the rural areas. Primary data obtained covering water resources, access, capacity, uses, and environment were collected using closed-ended questionnaires. Altogether, 370 household heads were sampled and were selected by systematic random sampling technique. Multiple correlations, factor analysis and multiple regression methods were used to determine the level of relationship between the Water Poverty Index (WPI) components. The results revealed that: WPI is the highest in Elenke/Sagbo (72.3%) and the lowest in Onigbeti II/Sagbon (55.5%). Also, WPI has a strong positive relationship with resources (r = .656), capacity (r = .705) and environment at 95%. Percentages of explanations of WPI ranges from 86.45% in Onigbeti I to 50.99% in Aboke.The results of multiple regression between WPI and components showed that components were weak predictors in 5 wards (Onigbeti III &IV, Onigbeti II , Onigbeti I, Seriki Agbele Aboke and Abogun wards). The paper posits that access to water in Olorunsogo Local Government Area (LGA) is generally reasonable. The paper suggests stronger government presence to improve and sustain the level of access.
 Keywords : Water Poverty; Access; Capacity; Uses; Environment; Resources; Factor Analysis
 
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