Rebalancing Demand and Reconfiguring Uses.
Demand management has always been part of water policy, but in water-bankrupt systems it moves from being one option among many to being the central lever. The goal is not simply to “ use water more efficiently ” within an unchanged development model, but to bring total claims back within a degraded carrying capacity, while safeguarding basic human needs and ecological integrity. Rebalancing demand in a water-bankrupt system involves at least four fundamental strategies. 1) Securing basic human needs and critical services: Water bankruptcy always reveals a claim–capacity mismatch: the sum of legal rights, illegal uses, informal expectations, and development promises exceeds the degraded carrying capacity of the system. Bankruptcy management begins by first writing down claims and then identifying non-negotiable minimums: access to sufficient, safe, and acceptable quality water for drinking, sanitation and hygiene ; essential health and education facilities; basic ...