The newly developed international Water Poverty Index (WPI) finds that some of the world's richest nations such as the United States (32nd) and Japan (34th) fare poorly in water ranking, while two developing countries (Guyana, Suriname) score in the top ten. Developed by the UK's Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) Wallingford and the World Water Council (WWC), the WPI grades 147 countries according to five different measures: resources, access, capacity, use and environmental impact to show where the best and worst water situations exist. It helps policy makers to see the links between poverty, social deprivation, environmental integrity, water availability and health. The WPI demonstrates the strong connection between 'water poverty' and 'income poverty.' Ultimately, the WPI has been designed as a monitoring tool, mainly at the community or district level. CEH Wallingford has carried out pilot projects to test and use the WPI in Sri Lanka, Tanzania, and South Africa.

Contact: Dr Caroline Sullivan, CEH Wallingford, UK, csu@ceh.ac.uk ; WWC, France, wwc@worldwatercouncil.org

Source: WWC, 11 Dec 2002

CEH Walingford - Water Poverty Index, http://www.ceh-wallingford.ac.uk/research/WPI

Tags: monitoring & evaluation, policies & legislation, water resources management