19 March 2026
Where Water Flows Equality Grows
— Quote from UN World Water Day 2026
Scotland likes to describe itself as a “hydro nation”, a country rich in water resources, shaped by rain, rivers, and lochs. Yet abundance does not automatically translate into just and sustainable systems.
Scotland may be a hydro nation, but abundance alone does not guarantee a just and sustainable water supply. Where water flows, equality does not necessarily grow.
Across rural and island Scotland, communities experience water supply in very different ways: some rely on extensive public infrastructure of varying degrees of decentralisation, while others rely on small household or community-managed systems. In many locations, water supplies are increasingly vulnerable to disruption. The reason could be due to one or a combination of changes to climate, land use practices, population distributions, water use and demand patterns, catchment management, water-intensive industries, or aging infrastructure, the list could go on. And as pressures on water supplies grow, the limits of existing arrangements are becoming increasingly apparent, raising into the public consciousness important questions about fairness in water systems design and accessibility.
What principles of fairness should shape future sustainable water systems?
A helpful starting point for thinking about fairness is the well-known diagram that compares equality and equity (Figure 1). You have probably seen the diagram before. Three people stand behind a fence trying to watch a game. In the “equality” version of the diagram, each person receives the same box to stand on. In the “equity” version, the boxes are distributed differently so everyone can see.
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Figure 1: This well-known diagram illustrates the difference between equality and equity. Image credit: Interaction Institute for Social Change
The message is straightforward: treating everyone the same does not always produce fair outcomes. As the saying goes “equality is giving everyone a shoe; equity is giving everyone a shoe that fits”.
The equality-equity diagram captures an important insight
The equality-equity diagram (Figure 1) has been widely used in discussions about social justice. The popularity of the image lies in its clarity. It reminds us that fairness often requires recognising differences in starting conditions.
Water systems also illustrate this well. Let us explain how.
Across Scotland, water supply operates under very different environmental and infrastructural conditions. Some communities are served by extensive (relatively) centralised treatment networks, while others rely on smaller systems drawing on local water sources. Environmental factors such as rainfall variability, landscape, local geology, and seasonal demand can all influence how reliable a supply is.
Our research examining water systems across rural and island Scotland shows how these factors interact with everyday life. Infrastructure, environmental conditions, and community practices combine to shape how water systems function in particular places.
In this context, the equality-equity distinction makes intuitive sense. Applying the same technical assumptions or policy approaches everywhere will not necessarily produce more just and sustainable outcomes given that water systems operate under very different conditions.
Critics say the equality-equity diagram oversimplifies equity
Despite its popularity, the equality-equity diagram has also attracted significant criticism. It is argued that the image reduces a complex question about justice to a deceptively simple solution. In the diagram, equity appears to be solved by giving someone a larger box.
But solving real-world inequalities rarely work like that. Inequalities often emerge from deeper structural conditions including how systems are organised and governed, whose needs are recognised in which forums, and how risks and responsibilities are distributed.
The critique is very relevant to sustainable water systems transitions.
Water systems don’t just differ because some have more resources than others. They differ because they are shaped by water cultures, that is, place-specific combinations of environment, infrastructure, and the ways people value, use, and care for water.
Nor are water needs the same for everyone. What counts as “safe” or “sufficient” depends on who you are, and factors such as gender, health, and social roles all matter.
And these differences don’t sit in isolation. They are continually reshaped by external pressures, including wider governance systems, which have often overlooked the realities of place but still determine - directly or indirectly - how water systems operate.
Because of these critiques, many commentators have suggested alternatives to the equality-equity diagram. Some add an iteration of the diagram labelled “justice”, where the barrier itself is removed. Others try to illustrate structural change rather than simply redistributing resources.
What would an image that captures a just and sustainable water system look like?
Certainly, just and sustainable water systems are not produced through fixed solutions – like adding more “boxes” to see over a fence. Consultation alone, for example, is rarely sufficient: people may be asked for their views, but decisions are made elsewhere. The image of people peering over a dividing line seems apt here.
A more accurate image would show the system itself: who decides how water is managed, what knowledge those decisions based on, the extent to which place-based values and needs are embedded in systems design, and how responsibility for maintaining infrastructure is shared. A more accurate diagram would be complicated.
Equality can grow, where water systems flow
Resilient and sustainable water systems are ‘alive’ and able to respond to difference in both physical and social environments.
Work in water justice makes clear that this responsiveness cannot be neutral but must be grounded in principles of justice. The next stage of work, then, is to ask more explicitly what those principles should be, and how they might be embedded in the design and governance of water systems. Should commitments such as the human right to water provide a foundation? What can be learned from the ways people relate to, value, and care for water in different places, and how these relationships shape practices of stewardship?
These questions matter because equality does not emerge automatically from the presence or movement of water, but from how water systems are organised, governed, and sustained in practice. In this sense, we could turn the UN’s phrasing for World Water Day 2026 around: equality can grow, where water systems flow.
Sunday 22nd March 2026 is World Water Day, an annual United Nations Observance focusing on the importance of fresh water, held on 22 March every year since 1993.
Written by Laura Major and Jen Roberts, as part of ongoing research into sustainable transitions for water supplies in rural and island Scotland, supported by the UKRI-funded Decentralised Water Technologies Programme and the ESRC/ACCESS-funded project Taps Aff! Voicing Experiences of Water Scarcity in Rural Scotland. Understanding water culture, and how it informs fair sustainable water futures is core to these projects.
Interested to read more? See our SISC blog from September 2025 Homes Need More Than Land: Remembering Water in Rural and Island Development Planning, take a look at our research poster, or listen to Local Zero Podcast episode 109 on water scarcity.
