ABSTRACT
Inadequate governance has played a large role in the water crisis and is set to continue to be a major contributor. Fragmented responsibilities, ineffective management, overlapping interests and inter-institutional rivalry, private profit-making, lack of coordination between upstream and downstream users, inappropriate political interference, poor legal structures and lack of enforcement mechanisms, historical water rights inhibiting fairer water distribution, and lack of public or stakeholder involvement are all responsible in different degrees in different places. Communist countries have suffered from over-centralization, underfunding, lack of performance incentives and jobs for life for Party members. At the other extreme, countries with more laissez-faire capitalist politics have often suffered from too much fragmentation among institutions and an excessive profit motive. Many countries of all shades of the political spectrum also continue to suffer from corruption. Corruption continues to be a particular problem for developing countries, but it is by no means exclusive to them.
