November 2012: In a discussion paper titled “Water security: Old concepts, new package, what value?” published by the Global Water Forum, the authors devise an index to quantify water security at a national level in order to encourage a more concrete understanding of water scarcity.The paper identifies key issues in assessing water security to understand the concept better. The authors suggest moving beyond qualitative definitions to develop a list, or finite set, of criteria on which water security is determined and evaluated in order to reach a more common understanding of water security. The authors further propose distinguishing between means and ends, as interpretations of water security could benefit from a clear focus on the ends of water security rather than on the means to water security or the ends beyond water security.

The authors propose five components of a water security index: agriculture production; environmental flows; basic household needs; independence; and risk management. The authors then apply these five concepts across Asia-Pacific countries to generate water security scores. The study reveals substantial variation among and within countries.

The paper concludes that, with so many new concepts related to water already in the discourse, there may be confusion, fatigue or skepticism associated with the introduction of “water security” as yet another new term that is not concretely defined yet. [Publication: Water security: Old concepts,new package,what value?]