Water circularity and water scarcity: recycling an old story of losses and efficiency?

Applying circular economy (CE) principles to water seems obvious at first sight: the often-depicted water cycle appears well-matched with the image of circularity. This article shows that employing CE principles to deal with water scarcity relies on familiar concepts in the water sector – efficiency, resource recovery, technology – implying a search for losses and often leading to increased water use. Above all, the CE rhetoric informs about our relationship to water. By analysing the ‘making of losses’, we show how adopting CE principles perpetuates the naturalization of the water cycle and the hierarchy of anthropogenic uses over the environment.