ABSTRACT
Conceptually and at the policy level, ‘security’ has acquired multiple connotations and is increasingly being perceived as issue-based rather than as an overarching idea. Notwithstanding the critics who regard this broadening of the security ambit as leading to intellectual incoherence and as being counterproductive to devising solutions, modern security concepts are coming to terms with multiple meanings. With water becoming an increasingly challenging resource, its salience for national security has assumed enormous significance. Water security implies affordable access to clean water for agricultural, industrial and household usage and is thus an important component of human security. Water, along with food and energy, forms a critical part of the ‘new security agenda’ and redefines the understanding of security as a basis for policy response and long-term planning. The ‘securitisation move’ of an existential issue such as water generates political attention, public awareness and policy initiatives. There is, however, the risk that the issue can become vulnerable to political vested interests, and linkage politics and solutions could be manipulated within the political context.
