Governance & Development
The uncommon management of water Reimagining water governance
WRITER: Remi Cerdan & Elisa Asmelash 
Despite technical solutions and international funds, universal water access is still far from being achieved. The transition from unsustainable water management practices to a better and just administration of water should go beyond the simple fiddling with management practices, and include a major renovation and reimagining of water governance. Water is an essential resource. Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) #6: “Ensure access to water and sanitation for all� is the
16 | Winter 2017/18
evidence of its growing global concern and recognition of its link with poverty by the international community. Regardless of the type of ownership, the affordable and universal access to clean and potable water is now indisputably considered a human right. But why are there so many failures in water supply? International donors and NGOs treated water access as a purely technical and building wells quickly became the poster child of development aid projects. Evaluations of these
projects led by development aid stakeholders show a dire situation: 30-50% of water, sanitation or hygiene projects are not operational after five years and an additional 20% are only partially functional. Global financial losses related to water, sanitation and hygiene projects over the last two decades are estimated at $1.5 billion. As a consequence, international donors have begun to intervene in the water management systems by considering water as an economic good. As such, water is a very unusual good: its supply is finite and locally specific, and because of positive
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