[1] Moreover, water utilities and governments have long preferred large capital projects to the less profitable and more difficult challenges of improving system efficiency (e.g. leakage reduction) and demand management.
Water demand management came into vogue in the 1990s and 2000s at the same moment dams and similar supply augmentation schemes went out of fashion because they were increasingly seen as overly expensive, damaging to the environment (see Environmental impact of reservoirs), and socially unjust.
If skilfully done, such policies can address supply-demand imbalances by reducing demand to available supply, though the risk of negative impacts on utilities, consumers and the environment are all too real.
Such programmes have increasingly moved on-line, targeting consumers with tweets, Instagram posts and even Tik Toks enthusiastically promoting water conservation.
Research into water users' behaviours shows that most decisions are more linked to habit, perception and social conventions than rationality, particularly in the domestic sphere.
In city-regions where supply constraints are more severe water utilities have occasionally adopted the approach of offering to replace water-consumptive fixtures and fittings with water-conservative ones.
A good example is in south California where worries about running out of water led to a comprehensive programme of consumer education, leak detection, tariff reform and plumbing retrofits.
The authority has also supplied more than three million high efficiency showerheads and over two hundred thousand tap/faucet aerators (mixing air with water reduces flow rates whilst maintaining performance).
A common example is the energy industry which requires large volumes of water for cooling purposes in thermal and hydropower electricity generation facilities.
In other countries the proportion of abstraction earmarked for electricity generation varies widely, but it almost always a significant factor in overall water supply demand balance.
[6][7] Since pressures on water suppliers continue to mount, researchers are increasingly focussing on developing the empirical data base underpinning demand management approaches.