Water Security: Why It Matters and What to Do about It

Abstract

their food, produce their energy, and sustain their bodies. Rich and poor countries face different hydrological challenges (see figure 1, next page): rainfall in most rich countries is moderate and predictable, whereas many poor countries suffer more frequently from droughts and floods and face higher levels of uncertainty. Compounding the “bad hydrology” problem, most poor countries face a rapid growth in water demand, have small endowments of water infrastructure, have fragile institutions, and confront ever greater variability as the world climate changes. The result is growing water insecurity and more conflicts within and between countries, with the gravest challenges in and between poor countries. The glass is certainly half empty. But it is also half full, as there is emerging evidence (a) that societies with adequate stocks of infrastructure and robust institutions can adjust to major climatic shocks relatively harmoniously and with modest economic consequences, and (b) that there is huge potential in the development of a new generation of “smart technologies” (involving infrastructure, biology, chemistry, information, finance) for getting greater economic return from constrained supplies. In short, faced with unprecedented water-security challenges, there is an urgent need for all countries, and especially poor ones, to develop suites of institutions and technologies that are adapted to their cultural, historic, natural, and financial realities and which can bring their people improved and more harmonious development.