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The measurement of household-level and individual-level water insecurity has accelerated over the past 5 years through innovation and dissemination of new survey-based experiential psychometric scales modelled after food insecurity scales. These measures offer needed insight into the relative frequency of various dimensions of water problems experienced by households or individuals. But they currently tell us nothing about the severity of these experiences, mitigating behaviours (ie, adaptation) or the effectiveness of water-related behaviours (ie, resilience). Given the magnitude of the global challenge to provide water security for all, we propose a low-cost, theoretically grounded modification to common water insecurity metrics in order to capture information about severity, adaptation and resilience. We also discuss ongoing challenges in cost-effective measurement related to multidimensionality, water affordability and perception of water quality for maximising the impact and sustainability of water supply interventions. The next generation of water insecurity metrics promises better monitoring and evaluation tools—particularly in the context of rapid global environmental change—once scale reliability across diverse contexts is better characterised. 

Abstract Personal plastic-bottled water use is highly commodified, raising an array of cost and environmental concerns, and continues to grow globally. Studies in lower-income nations suggest safety as a primary motivation for such water purchases, but studies in high-income nations with greater relative affordability suggest it is more tied to socially situated consumer decisions like status and aesthetics. Here, we consider what motivates bottled water use in an urban city (Mashhad) in a middle-income predominantly Muslim country (Iran), where there is a likely intersection of safety (due to contamination), social norms, and status concerns. Surveys were collected with a random population-representative sample of resident adults from discrete households (n = 970). Structured equation modeling testing the relative effects on reported bottled water intentions and use shows that all these factors are shaping people's decisions. Both higher- and lower-income residents’ responses suggest that status and social norms considerably influence intentions to use. Overall, even despite real safety issues with tap water, social norms and status concerns seem to weigh more heavily on residents’ decisions to drink bottled water.