Household Water Security Index: development and application in the Awash Basin of Ethiopia

ABSTRACT

Despite water security becomes a complex global challenge; its assessments are spatially and temporally inconsistent. This affected water security monitoring at the local level. Some studies attempted to downscale national, regional or global level indicators to local scale, which have several shortcomings. Therefore, this study came up with a new Household Water Security Index to estimate the state of water security at a local level. The study constructed Household Water Security Index (HWSI) based on water resources availability (R), access (A), utilization (U), capacity (C), and environment (E), and water institution (I) indicators. It also tested the index using a sample district in the Awash Basin of Ethiopia. A cross-sectional firsthand data were collected from randomly selected 400 households. A multivariate technique called Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and bivariate correlation were employed. The result revealed that every household is either chronically or transitionally water unsecured. This was mainly due to poorly organized institutions, as well as lack of both the system and knowledge of water management systems under scarcity and surfeit. In some areas, there are moderate resource constraints. In other areas, the capacity to use water is very low. Yet the institutional performance was consistently weak. We concluded that first; macro-level indicators often obscure the local realities. Thus, the policy-makers and development planners need to prioritize the household’s situations accordingly. Second, water resources availability with proper use and capacity plays a pivotal role to achieve household water security. Third, it is important to integrate institutional elements in water security as a mediating process and stewardship of the local needs. Fourth, the HWSI can be replicable at various scales and contexts, which could be considered for further research. Finally, recognizing the local arrangements and building the capacity of water actors are of paramount importance.

KEYWORDS:

• Water security
• institution
• Awash Basin
• Household Water Security Index
• Ethiopia

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Ethiopian American Foundation (EAF) (2017/18 Academic Award) for funding this study. We are also grateful for anonymous reviewers and Editors of the Journal. We benefited from their insights.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Geographical information

The study was carried out in Fentale District located in the Awash River Basin. It is positioned at about 39.93° E to 39° 56′0° E longitude and 8.975° N to 8.58′30′′ N latitude on the route of Ethio-Djibouti railway.

Notes

1 Kaiser suggested that the value from 0.00 to 0.49 unacceptable, 0.50 to 0.59 miserable, 0.60 to 0.69 mediocre, 0.70 to 0.79 middling, 0.80 to 0.89 meritorious and 0.90 to 1.00 marvellous.

2 Methahara Sugar Factory (MSF) is the largest planation in the district. The plantation is the highest user of water from Awash River Basin. In addition, it has huge water storage in ponds and boreholes. During water surplus, MSF releases water to the surrounding community.

3 This indicator is used for household level analysis as macro-level under-5 mortality rate (per 1000 live births) may not be suitable though it is a well-established health indicator and closely tied to access to clean water (Lawrence et al., 2002).

4 The improved standard for human consumption is 25 litres per day (l/c/d) for rural area within a kilometre, 40–100 l/c/d for urban (MoWIE, 2016), whereas average livestock water demand is 20 and 25 litres per TLU per day for highland and lowland, respectively.

Additional information

Funding

We would like to thank Ethiopian American Foundation (EAF) [2017/18 Academic Award] for funding this study.