Abstract
An increasing number of factors pose challenges to the development and management of water resources in rural, remote, or otherwise marginalized (RRM) communities. Indicators and indices have been developed for evaluation, prioritization, and decision-making at local and supra-local scales. Indicators and indices are useful assessment tools as they simplify the modeling process and provide results in an accessible format. The purpose of this paper is to consolidate a list of indicators (n = 176) from a review of community- and basin- level indices and a selection of other literature within a water security framework for RRM communities. A detailed discussion of each of the six dimensions within the framework is provided. This paper concludes with some general remarks on the standards used for evaluation, the reliance upon historical and field data, suggestions for improving the descriptive clarity where it is lacking, and the prospect of these indicators getting used by community members.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
An improved source is protected in some way from contamination (fence, cover, etc.) (WHO and UNICEF 2012a), although this does not mean that it is uncontaminated.
References
Alessa L, Kliskey A, Lammers R, Arp C, White D, Hinzman L, Busey R (2008) The arctic water resource vulnerability index: an integrated assessment tool for community resilience and vulnerability with respect to freshwater. Environ Manag 42(3):523–541. doi:10.1007/s00267-008-9152-0
Al-Ghuraiz Y, Enshassi A (2005) Ability and willingness to pay for water supply service in the Gaza Strip. Build Environ 40:1093–1102. doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2004.09.019
Alkire S, Santos ME (2010) Acute multidimensional poverty: a new index for developing countries. UNDP
Asian Development Bank (2013) Asian water development outlook 2013. Asian development bank and asia-pacific water forum. http://www.adb.org/publications/asian-water-development-outlook-2013. Accessed Jan 2015
Backman G, Hunt P, Khosla R, Jaramillo-Strouss C, Fikre BM, Rumble C, Pevalin D, Acurio Páez D, Pineda MA, Frisancho A, Tarco D, Motlagh M, Farcasanu D, Vladescu C (2008) Health systems and the right to health: an assessment of 194 countries. Lancet 372:2047–2085
Baguma D, Loiskandl W, Jung H (2010) Water management, rainwater harvesting and predictive variables in rural households. Water Resour Manag 24(13):3333–3348. doi:10.1007/s11269-010-9609-9
Bisung E, Karanja DM, Abudho B, Oguna Y, Mwaura N, Ego P, Elliott SJ (2015) One community’s journey to lobby for water in an environment of privatized water: is Usoma too poor for the pro-poor program? Afr Geogr Rev:1–13
Bogardi JJ, Dudgeon D, Lawford R, Flinkerbusch E, Meyn A, Pahl-Wostl C, Vielhauer K, Vörösmarty C (2011) Water security for a planet under pressure: interconnected challenges of a changing world call for sustainable solutions. Curr Opin Environ Sustain 4(1):35–43. doi:10.1016/j.cosust.2011.12.002
Bunn SE, Arthington AH (2002) Basic principles and ecological consequences of altered flow regimes for aquatic biodiversity. Environ Manag 30(4):492–507. doi:10.1007/s00267-002-2737-0
Calow RC, MacDonald AM, Nicol AL, Robins NS (2010) Ground water security and drought in Africa: linking availability, access, and demand. Ground Water 48(2):246–256. doi:10.1111/j.1745-6584.2009.00558.x
Carter RC (1996) Strategies for hand pump water supply programmes in less developed Countries. J Chart Inst Water Environ Manag 10(2):130–136
Chaves HML, Alipaz S (2007) An integrated indicator based on basin hydrology, environment, life, and policy: the watershed sustainability index. Water Resour Manag 21(5):883–895. doi:10.1007/s11269-006-9107-2
Cook C, Bakker K (2012) Water security: debating an emerging paradigm. Glob Environ Chang 22:94–102. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2011.10.011
Davis J, Lukacs H, Jeuland M, Alvestegui A, Soto B, Lizárraga G, Bakalian A et al (2008) Sustaining the benefits of rural water supply investments: experience from Cochabamba and Chuquisaca, Bolivia. Water Resour Res 44(W12427):1–14. doi:10.1029/2007WR006550
Devi A, Bostoen K (2009) Extending the critical aspects of the water access indicator using East Africa as an example. Int J Environ Health Res 19(5):329–341. doi:10.1080/09603120802691608
Dunn G, Bakker K (2009) Canadian approaches to assessing water security: an inventory of indicators. Program on Water Governance. Retrieved from www.watergovernance.ca
El Ganzouri A, Schuster-Wallace CJ, Dickson SE (2015) Rainwater harvesting: a necessary but insufficient solution to meeting the human right to drinking water in Uganda. In: El Ganzouri A (ed) Modeling and analysis of rainwater harvesting systems under different climates. M.A.S. Thesis. http://hdl.handle.net/11375/16445
EPA (2002) Index of watershed indicators: an overview. US Environmental Protection Agency Office of Wetlands, Oceans, and Watersheds
EPA (2008) Indicator development for estuaries. US Environmental Protection Agency Office of Water
Falkenmark M, Lundqvist J (1998) Towards water security: political determination and human adaptation crucial. Nat Res Forum 22(1):37–51. doi:10.1111/j.1477-8947.1998.tb00708.x
FAO (1994) Water quality for agriculture. Retrieved September 22, 2012, from http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/T0234E/T0234E00.HTM
Fitch M, Price H (2002) Water poverty in England and wales. Retrieved September 25, 2012, from http://www.cieh.org/library/Knowledge/Environmental_protection/waterpoverty.pdf
Garfì M, Ferrer-Martí L (2011) Decision-making criteria and indicators for water and sanitation projects in developing countries. Water Sci Technol 64(1):83–101. doi:10.2166/wst.2011.543
Giné R, Pérez-Foguet A (2010) Improved method to calculate a water poverty index at local scale. J Environ Eng 136(11):1287–1298
Gleick PH (1996) Basic water requirements for human activities: meeting basic needs. Water Int 21(2):83–92
Grey D, Sadoff CW (2007) Sink or swim? Water security for growth and development. Water Policy 9:545–571
Grey D, Garrick D, Blackmore D, Kelman J, Muller M, Sadoff C (2013) Water security in one blue planet: twenty-first century policy challenges for science. Phil Trans R Soc A 371:20120406. doi:10.1098/rsta.2012.0406
Guo Y, Baetz BW (2007) Sizing of rainwater storage units for green building applications. J Hydrol Eng 12:197–205
Harvey PA, Reed RA (2006) Community-managed water supplies in Africa: sustainable or dispensable? Community Dev J 42(3):365–378. doi:10.1093/cdj/bsl001
Henriques JJ, Louis GE (2011) A decision model for selecting sustainable drinking water supply and greywater reuse systems for developing communities with a case study in Cimahi, Indonesia. J Environ Manag 92(1):214–222. doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2010.09.016
Hoko Z, Hertle J (2006) An evaluation of the sustainability of a rural water rehabilitation project in Zimbabwe. Phys Chem Earth 31(15–16):699–706. doi:10.1016/j.pce.2006.08.038
Howard G (2002) Water quality surveillance - a practical guide. Water, Engineering and Development Centre, Loughborough, p 88. doi:10.1021/ac60316a727
Howard G, Bartram J (2003) Domestic water quantity, service level and health. World Health Organization, Geneva
Howard G, Pedley S, Barrett M, Nalubega M, Johal K (2003) Risk factors contributing to microbiological contamination of shallow groundwater in Kampala, Uganda. Water Res 37:3421–3429. doi:10.1016/S0043-1354(03)00235-5
Jepson W (2014) Measuring ‘no-win’ waterscapes: experience-based scales and classification approaches to assess household water security in colonias on the US–Mexico border. Geoforum 51(2014):107–120. doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2013.10.002
Jonsson AC, Wilk J (2014) Opening up the water poverty index – co-producing knowledge on the capacity for community water management using the water prosperity index. Soc Nat Resour 27:265–280. doi:10.1080/08941920.2013.861553
Katz T, Sara J (1998) Making rural water supply sustainable: recommendations from a global study. Retrieved January 16, 2013, from http://www.its.caltech.edu/~e105/readings/rural_water.pdf
Levison MM, Elliott SJ, Karanja DM, Schuster-Wallace CJ, Harrington DW (2011) You cannot prevent a disease; You can only treat diseases when they occur: knowledge, attitudes and practices to water-health in a rural Kenyan community. East Afr J Publ Healh 8(2):103–111
Liu Z (2013) The macroscopic mechanism for rural safe drinking water. J Theor Appl Inf Technol 48(1):221–229
Ma H, Liu L, Chen T (2010) Water security assessment in Haihe River Basin using principal component analysis based on Kendall τ. Environ Monit Assess 163:539–544. doi:10.1007/s10661-009-0856-2
MacDonald AM, Calow RC (2009) Developing groundwater for secure rural water supplies in Africa. Desalination 248:546–556. doi:10.1016/j.desal.2008.05.100
MacDonald AM, Davies J, Calow RC, Chilton J (2005) Developing groundwater: a guide for rural water supply. Practical Action Publishing, Warwickshire
McCommon C, Warner D, Yohalem D (1990) Community management of rural water supply and sanitation services. Retrieved September 18, 2012, from http://go.worldbank.org/PYQ42KSBT0?
Moglia M, Neumann LE, Alexander KS, Nguyen MN, Sharma AK, Cook S, Trung NH, Tuan DDA (2012) Application of the water needs index: can Tho City, Mekong Delta, Vietnam. J Hydrol 468–469:203–212. doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2012.08.036
Narayan D (1993) Participatory evaluation: tools for managing change in water and sanitation. World Bank Publications. doi:10.1596/0-8213-2477-2
Narayan D (1995) The Contribution of people’s participation: evidence from 121 rural water supply projects. World Bank. Retrieved January 16, 2013, from http://go.worldbank.org/HXUJJ63EZ0?
Norman E, Cook C, Dunn G, Allen D (2010) Water security: a primer. Program on Water Governance. Retrieved from www.watergovernance.ca
Norman E, Dunn G, Bakker K, Allen D, de Albuquerque R (2013) Water security assessment: integrating governance and freshwater indicators. Water Resour Manag 27:535–551. doi:10.1007/s11269-012-0200-4
OECD (2003) Environmental indicators: development, measurement and use. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Retrieved September 25, 2012, from http://www.oecd.org/environment/environmentalindicatorsmodellingandoutlooks/24993546.pdf
OECD (2004) Key environmental indicators. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Paris, Retrieved September 25, 2012, from http://www.oecd.org/environment/environmentalindicatorsmodellingandoutlooks/31558547.pdf
OECD (2013) Water security for better lives. OECD Publishing. http://www.oecd.org/env/resources/watersecurity.htm. Accessed Jan 2015
Peng L (2004) A universal index formula suitable to multiparameter water quality evaluation. Numer Methods Partial Differ Equat 20(3):368–373. doi:10.1002/num.10090
Pérez-Foguet A, Giné R (2011) Analyzing water poverty in basins. Water Resour Manag 25(14):3595–3612. doi:10.1007/s11269-011-9872-4
Plummer R, Loë R, Armitage D (2012) A systematic review of water vulnerability assessment tools. Water Resour Manag 26(15):4327–4346. doi:10.1007/s11269-012-0147-5
PRI (2007) Canadian water sustainability index. Policy Research Institute, Government of Canada. Retrieved January 16, 2013, from http://www.horizons.gc.ca/doclib/SD/SD_PR_CWSI_web_e.pdf
Saeedi M, Abessi O, Sharifi F, Meraji H (2010) Development of groundwater quality index. Environ Monit Assess 163:327–335. doi:10.1007/s10661-009-0837-5
SCHR (2004) The sphere project: humanitarian charter and minimum standards in disaster response. Retrieved January 16, 2013, from http://www.sphereproject.org/handbook/
Schuster-Wallace CJ, Dickson SE (2016) Pathways to a water secure community. In: Adeel Z, Sandford R, Devlaeminck D (eds) Individuals and communities: the human face of water in the water security in a new world book series. Springer (in press)
Siwar C, Ahmed F (2014) Concepts, dimensions and elements of water security. Pakistan J Nutrition 13(5):281–286
Smajgl A, Larson S, Hug B, De Freitas DM (2010) Water use benefit index as a tool for community-based monitoring of water related trends in the Great Barrier Reef region. J Hydrol 395(102):1–9. doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2010.09.007
Stebbing MS, Carey M, Sinclair M, Sim M (2013) Understanding the vulnerability, resilience and adaptive capacity of households in rural Victorian towns in the context of long-term water insecurity. Aust J Water Resour 17(2):193–201
Sullivan CA, Meigh JR, Giacomello AM, Fediw T, Lawrence P, Samad M, Mlote S et al (2003) The water poverty index: development and application at the community scale. Nat Res Forum 27:189–199
Sutton S (2003) Why think of smaller units for rural water supply? Household and small community solutions, Overview presentation at the Fourth HTN Forum, 2–5 June 2003, Durban
UNESCO (2012) World water development report 4: managing water under uncertainty and risk. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Retrieved January 16, 2013, from http://www.unesco.org/new/en/natural-sciences/environment/water/wwap/wwdr/wwdr4-2012/
UNICEF (1999) Towards better programming: a water handbook. UNICEF, New York, Retrieved from http://www.unicef.org/wash/files/Wat_e.pdf
Van Ty T, Sunada K, Ichikawa Y, Oishi S (2010) Evaluation of the state of water resources using modified water poverty index: a case study in the Srepok River basin, Vietnam – Cambodia. Intl J River Basin Manag 8(3–4):305–317
Vishnudas S, Savenije HHG, Van der Zaag P, Kumar CEA, Anil KR (2008) Sustainability analysis of two participatory watershed projects in Kerala. Phys Chem Earth 33:1–12. doi:10.1016/j.pce.2007.04.004
WELL (1998) Guidance manual on water supply and sanitation programmes. Water, Engineering and Development Centre, Loughborough
WHO, UNICEF (2006) Core questions on drinking-water and sanitation for household surveys. Retrieved September 26, 2012, from http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/monitoring/household_surveys/en/index.html
WHO (2011) Guidelines for drinking-water quality. Retrieved September 22, 2012, from http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/dwq/guidelines/en/
WHO, UNICEF (2012a) Progress on drinking water and sanitation: 2012 Update. Retrieved September 18, 2012, from http://www.mondialisations.org/medias/pdf/drinkingwateren.pdf
WHO, UNICEF (2012b) Rapid assessment of drinking-water quality: a handbook for implementation. Retrieved January 16, 2013, from http://www.wssinfo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/resources/RADWQ_Jordan.pdf
WHO, UNICEF (2015) Progress on Sanitation and Drinking Water; 2015 Update and MDG Assessment. UNICEF and WHO. Available from: http://www.wssinfo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/resources/JMPUpdate-report-2015_English.pdf. Accessed Aug 2015
World Bank (n.d.) World Bank Social Capital Assessment Tool (SOCAT) retrieved on January 19, 2016 from http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTSOCIALCAPITAL/Resources/Social-Capital-Assessment-Tool--SOCAT-/annex1.pdf
Xiao S, Li J, Xiao H, Liu F (2008) Comprehensive assessment of water security for inland watersheds in the Hexi Corridor, Northwest China. Environ Geol 55(2):369–376. doi:10.1007/s00254-007-0982-5
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge funding from the Province of Ontario through an Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS) awarded to J. Newton, field support from the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment, and Health, and a Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery Grant awarded to S. Dickson.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Dickson, S.E., Schuster-Wallace, C.J. & Newton, J.J. Water Security Assessment Indicators: The Rural Context. Water Resour Manage 30, 1567–1604 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-016-1254-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-016-1254-5