In this paper, principal components methodology is used to derive simplified and cost effective indexes of water poverty. Using a well known data set for 147 countries from which an earlier five-component water poverty index comprising of "Resources," "Access," "Capacity," "Use" and "Environment" was constructed, we find that a simplified three-component composite index comprising of "Access," "Capacity," and "Environment," with unequal weights, or its two-component counterpart comprising of "Capacity" and "Environment" with equal weights, would be more cost-effective to construct without much loss of information. These simplified indexes have high positive and negative correlations with the Human Development Index and the Human Poverty Index, respectively.