Viewpoint: The measurement of water access and use is key for more effective food and nutrition policy

Water-related indicators have predominantly focused on water availability and water infrastructure; experiences with water access and use have received far less attention. However, the assessment of water security using disaggregated indicators that are more proximal to the human experience, i.e., household and individual access and use, has enormous potential for transforming our understanding of human well-being, in much the same way that the shift to experiential measures of food insecurity has been transformative. Water access and use shapes many aspects of economic well-being, food security, nutrition, and physical and mental health that have largely gone unappreciated in great part due to the lack of precise, high-resolution data on water insecurity. The recent advent of globally comparable measurements of water access and use with the Individual and Household Water Insecurity Experiences Scales has five major implications for more effective food and nutrition policy, i.e., for targeting, measuring impact, modeling, regulation design, and sectoral siloing. Experiences of water insecurity should be regularly measured worldwide in much the same way that food insecurity is because water is of intrinsic value, shapes food security and global health, and is critical for achieving many other development goals.