Responding to the ‘Wicked Problem’ of Water Insecurity

Abstract

This paper highlights key trends and projections in water scarcity, reviews the ways that water security and water scarcity are most commonly understood, and explores possible responses. Based on a selected review of the literature, an explanation is provided of ways that water pricing can be applied to respond to water insecurity from both a demand and supply perspective. ‘Hard’ and also ‘soft’ approaches that include stakeholder, policy and decision processes are briefly reviewed as ways to promote water security. Collectively, the paper provides a guide about how decision makers might efficiently and equitably respond to the ‘wicked problem’ of water insecurity.