Strategies and instruments to face droughts and water scarcity

This chapter discusses the strategies that are of importance in the development of policy responses to the water‐scarcity issues. Different packages of measures are possible to increase resilience towards drought. Three general strategies can be discerned. These strategies are reactive, preventive, and adaptive. Each of these strategies can be coupled with types of measure. To improve the evaluation of past experiences, for the development of a more long‐term orientation, and the involvement of all stakeholders and their interests, people need to increase their consciousness of the natural conditions and socio‐economic factors that affect water utilization patterns and the problems of drought and water scarcity that might result. This leads to a fourth necessary strategy that can be labelled as supportive measures, consisting mostly of research and communication measures. The chapter elaborates the taxonomy of drought measures and gives several examples.