Water governance ¿ what is the consensus?

Abstract

The concept of water governance is a firmly established part of the consensus on international water development, and has become a constant theme in the policy processes we are discussing in this seminar. Originating in its present format at about the time of the second World Water Forum in 2002, it was specifically restated at the International Conference on Freshwater in Bonn, 2001 (¿the essential key is stronger, better performing governance arrangements¿), and it featured prominently in the outputs from the Third World Water Forum in Kyoto, 2003. In the Alternative Water Forum, held here in Bradford just after the Kyoto event, we encouraged participants to analyse and critically debate the underlying ideas, In this paper I want to encourage this continuing analysis and debate. Like many of the issues we shall be discussing over the next couple of days, I believe it repays closer consideration, and that it encompasses a set of important ideas which must not be lost in constant re-iteration of a general theme.