Understanding People with Water Insecurity: Insights from the Lloyd's Register Foundation 2021 World Risk Poll

Water insecurity, or lacking sustainable access to adequate quantities of safe water, is a threat to human health and well-being worldwide. To inform communications for people with water insecurity, we examined key characteristics of people with (vs without) water insecurity around the world, as reported on the 121-country 2021 Lloyd's Register Foundation World Risk Poll (n > 125,000). We discuss three findings, which showed robustness across multiple analyses. First, participants with (vs without) water insecurity felt less prepared for disasters. Second, local news and emergency services were the most universally trusted information sources, though participants with (vs without) water insecurity trusted these sources slightly less. Third, water safety concerns were more strongly associated with severe weather concerns than with climate change concerns, especially among participants with (vs without) water insecurity. Thus, communications targeting people with water insecurity should aim to improve disaster preparedness, use trusted information sources such as local news and emergency services, and highlight connections between water security threats and worsening severe weather.

Keywords: Water insecurity, Disaster communications, Disaster preparedness, Trust, Public climate risk perceptions.