Evaluating the need, benefits and challenges of implementing shared water governance in an urban context: Comparing Calgary, Canada and Mexico City, Mexico

Decreasing fresh water quality and quantity is a limiting factor for human settlement, ecosystems, and for economic development. The economic trend to privatise water sources and/or water distribution, more evident in developing countries, is impacting access to fresh water by depriving communities of their ancestral water rights and increasing water prices. Around the world, citizen groups and non-governmental organizations are calling for a new approach to manage water that focuses on its sustainable use and equal access (Shiva, 2006; Castro Soto, 2007).