Hi Simon,

This looks great. Based on some work we've been doing at SEI, I would like to embed these different "species" of water poverty within a livelihood framework. I think that in such a framework the inter-relationships between the different manifestations of water poverty become more apparent. The idea is that communities and households deploy their livelihood assets in order to buffer against variability in the physical, economic, and political environment. These translate into changes in their livelihood status as mediated by their own capabilities and the institutions in which they operate.

Looking at the 5 items, it seems to me that they can be related to this framework:

1. where people are deprived of water for basic needs of consumption or sanitation as a result of water scarcity.
   
   • Insufficient assets to compensate for physical scarcity
   
   


2. where people lack equitable access to water.
   
   • Political environment & institutions that lead to inequitable access
   
   


3. where people are vulnerable to water-related hazards such as floods, droughts or disease.
   
   • Physical variability & lack of assets to buffer against natural variability
   
   


4. where people acquire insufficient benefit from water use. That is, low water productivity.
   
   • Lack of assets: e.g., insufficient human capital, physical capital, or savings
   
   


5. where people suffer loss of livelihood as a consequence of change.
   
   • And this is the basic concept behind the framework
   
   

So, I think these are related: Item 5 subsumes some of the others, and it really comes down to the interactions between: livelihood assets, the environment, and institutions.

For more details, I'm uploading a draft report (still incomplete) on some of the work we've been doing at SEI on this. We are planning to carry out some participatory exercises to test the ideas in the report in Thailand later this year.