This paper challenges the World Bank’s sustainable water management framework. Drawing upon case
studies in the developing world, this paper demonstrates how to build a more socially-informed model by
incorporating human values into water governance and seeking a deeper understanding of social context
and cultural diversity. This paper highlights the need to achieve water sustainability without undermining the
social networks and livelihoods of poor people. Successful water interventions depend on our understanding
of: (1) history and culture of social relations; (2) existing cooperative relations that shape water participation;
(3) people’s livelihood priorities; (4) individuals’ preferred institutional environment; (5) the interplay
between new and old institutions through which people get access to resources and exercise agency.
History
School
Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering
Research Unit
Water, Engineering and Development Centre (WEDC)
Published in
WEDC Conference
Citation
WONG, S., 2008. Politicising the World Bank's over-institutionalised water reforms in the developing countries. IN: Jones, H. (ed). Access to sanitation and safe water - Global partnerships and local actions: Proceedings of the 33rd WEDC International Conference, Accra, Ghana, 7-11 April 2008, pp. 309-315.
This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/