The controversial debate on the role of water reservoirs in reducing water scarcity

Abstract

Reservoirs are built worldwide for a higher water supply in dry periods by storing water temporarily in wet periods. Recent socio-hydrology studies hypothesized, by creating “supply–demand cycles”, that reservoirs can lead indirectly to counterintuitive dynamics such as more water scarcity and a higher economic and social vulnerability. This opinion argues that reservoirs are part of co-evolutionary processes with natural, social, and engineered elements and therefore, water scarcity need to be analyzed within socio-political interactions. Aspects such as (a) institutions; (b) governance processes; (c) social–ecological factors; (d) narratives of water scarcity; and (e) powerful economic interests are essential to understand feedback mechanisms between reservoirs and water scarcity and to hypothesize long-term phenomena such as water scarcity. Neglecting these interactions could lead to biased research agendas, misleading conclusions, and adverse effects on the transformation process toward sustainability. Given the complexity of social–ecological systems, the diversity and critical capacity of inter- and transdisciplinary work is crucial to further advance the study of unintended side effects of reservoirs or — more general — the study of socio-hydrology. This article is categorized under: Human Water.