For an economist, it is meaningless to refer to the economic value of “water security” in the abstract; it only makes sense to refer to the economic value of moving from one level of water security to another. This necessity of comparing the utility (or well-being) that a person receives from two different levels of water security is how Adam Smith’s diamond-water paradox was resolved. The change in utility or well-being that a person experiences as a result of a change in water security may be large or small depending on how close the attributes of water services in the two states of the world are to each other.