Water Scarcity is perhaps the most dominant of the discourses that drive water management efforts around the world. ‘The need to manage’ is most widely understood to have arisen out of a demand-supply mismatch, and ‘management’ as the effort to conserve available resources and increase the efficiency of their usage.

According to the FAO, “… By 2025, 1 800 million people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, and two-thirds of the world population could be under stress conditions.” Diminishing supply has severe consequences, felt in various forms in various contexts. The following videos capture some of them:

• Benin: Nîm, or the Fresh Water Sinner
• Yemen: Water Scarcity and Problems in Sana’a Basin
• United States: The American Southwest- are we running dry?

A less visible aspect of water management is highlighted by those who question whether the concept of scarcity has been politicized and generalised, to overlook the issue of ‘access.’ As we frame the problem in terms of the aggregate availability and scarcity of water, do we overlook socio-economic/governance issues that determine ‘who gets to use how much?’ The following videos highlight this aspect:

• Nicaragua: The challenge of local water governance
• Zambia: When more water leads to conflict
• Vietnam: When new water-users emerge
• Palestine: Za ‘bobeh

As always, we come back to how reality is complex, and we would do well not to lose sight of either perspective!  Meanwhile, every day around the world, people are coming up with innovative solutions that address the issue of availability, access or both. These range from technologies to add more water to existing resources, tools to purify unusable water and make it usable, and governance interventions that make water more/better water accessible to more people. Following are some some examples:

• Mozambique: The Tulip Water Filter
• Zimbabwe: Solar disinfection of drinking water
• Kenya:  Harvesting Rain
• Bangladesh: Water Voices- Breaking Barriers

TheWaterChannel tries to keep up with and capture emerging perspectives and solutions, through videos. Check out how we’ve divided them into various categories.

(Visit the Features Archive More Video Features)