Water Security in Kuwait: Exploring a Water Citizenship Approach to Sustainable Water Futures

In collaboration with Kuwait University

LSE PI: Dr Arda Bilgen
KU PI: Dr Reem AlAwadhi
Duration: 1 January 2026 - 27 February 2027

Kuwait faces one of the most acute water security challenges globally. With no permanent freshwater sources and minimal annual rainfall, the country relies on seawater desalination for approximately 90% of its potable water supply. While desalination has enabled socioeconomic development, it has also entrenched dependence on fossil-fuel-based energy, intensified environmental pressures, and produced systemic vulnerabilities. High per capita water consumption—driven by urbanisation, affluent lifestyles, and heavily subsidised pricing—further exacerbates these challenges. Policy responses have largely prioritised technical supply-side solutions, with limited engagement with the social, cultural, and behavioural drivers of water demand.

This project addresses a critical gap by examining water governance in Kuwait through the lens of ‘water citizenship.’ It investigates how identities, values, lived experiences of scarcity, and policy narratives shape everyday water practices, and whether water can be understood not only as a commodity but as a shared domain of rights, responsibilities, and collective meaning. The research also identifies the conditions that enable or constrain public engagement with water sustainability and evaluates interactions between policy, technology, and citizen practices within Kuwait’s evolving governance landscape.

Methodologically, the study employs a qualitative, constructivist design. Using grounded theory, it develops the first empirically grounded, Kuwait-specific model of water citizenship.

The project contributes theoretically by extending debates on environmental citizenship beyond Western contexts, and practically by offering policy-relevant insights for demand management, participatory governance, and long-term behavioural change. It provides pathways for more socially embedded and resilient water governance in Kuwait and comparable hyper-arid, high-consumption settings.

This project forms part of Kuwait Programme, funded by the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Science (KFAS).

_{(C) Image from Unsplash}

Principal Investigators:

• Arda Bilgen | Principal Investigator

  Arda Bilgen is a Research Officer at LSE MEC, focusing on global water governance, transboundary water politics, national water infrastructure policies, and local experiences of water insecurity. Previously worked on the PeaceRep project ‘Surface Water Changes in the Euphrates-Tigris Basin.’

• Reem Alawadhi | Co-Principle Investigator

  Reem Alawadhi is an assistant professor in the Earth and Environmental Science department at Kuwait University. She received her PhD in Environmental Science & Policy from University of New York and her Master's from John's Hopkins University. She has a certificate in Advanced Studies in Sustainable Enterprise. Her reaserch intrests involve understanding environmental citizenship, environmental justice issues in Kuwait, and developing environmental policies in the GCC.