Commentary: Has the well of good ideas and public policy on water run dry?
Advertisement Many other incidents, in cities ranging from Sydney in Australia to Hong Kong, have made people increasingly sceptical of the quality of water they get at home.
Installations of expensive water treatment systems are exploding in the developed world, as is consumption of bottled water.
Unless these get adequate attention, neither technology nor additional investment funds are likely to resolve the world’s clean water drinking problems.
A decade ago we predicted that unless management practices improved very significantly at least one city in Africa would face unprecedented water crisis within 20 years.
This includes pricing water appropriately as well as incentives for using less water, particularly in times of drought.
There is good reason to believe people can lead a healthy and productive life with 75 to 85 litres of water per day.
For example, water consumption in Czech Republic is now 88 litres per capita per day.
Technological developments will undoubtedly help to solve the world’s urban water problems.
But there is increasing evidence that if the aim is to provide everyone with access to clean water, then increasing focus must be placed on governance, institutional issues and policies.
But lack of sustained political will has been the most important missing link critical factor to improve urban water governance in nearly all cities of the world.