The iWater Index: A Desalination-Sensitive Framework for Water Security and Resilience with Applications in Egypt

Water scarcity represents an increasing threat to sustainable development, particularly in arid and semi-arid nations such as Egypt. Desalination has emerged as a principal alternative to increase water supply. This paper introduces a new framework, complemented by the iWater Index, a novel holistic evaluation tool designed to quantify desalination’s contribution to water security and resilience. The new DECSI framework integrates five interconnected dimensions—Drinking Water and Human Needs, Ecosystem Sustainability, Climate Resilience, Socio-Economic Equity, and Institutional and Governance Capacity—operationalized through 31 indicators spanning technical performance, environmental sustainability, social acceptability, economic feasibility, and governance effectiveness. The framework was illustrated for Egypt to qualitatively assess the current performance and strategic priority of each indicator. Results highlight the approximately intermediate performance along most axes, with climate resilience being a primary gap, indicating a challenge in reinforcing overall water resilience. The DECSI-iWater tool provides diagnostic and decision-support capabilities, enabling prioritization of interventions, the identification of critical gaps, and the formulation of a step-by-step roadmap for the integration of desalination into national agendas for sustainable water security and resilience. Although developed in Egypt, the model is designed for use in any geographic, institutional, and socio-economic setting, offering a globally relevant strategy for integrating desalination planning with robust water security objectives.