Three years after the adoption of the OECD Water Governance Principles, this report takes stock of their use and evolving practices, and provides an indicator framework building on lessons learned from their implementation in different countries and contexts.

The science–policy interface is critical to the design and implementation of water policies. In theory, scientists provide policy makers with robust facts and data that can help guide decision making, and lessons from the political economy of reforms can push scientific boundaries further to trigger further research for wise solutions. While evidence-based policy is obviously desirable, in practice such a connection is not always straightforward. Another assumption behind the science–policy gap is the discrepancy between scientists and policy makers in terms of culture, process, timing, language and expected outcome. This book tries to reconcile this discrepancy through a multi-stakeholder approach to authoring its different articles. This joint initiative between the OECD – particularly its Water Governance Initiative – and the International Water Resources Association seeks to provide a canvas for grounding water policy in science, and vice versa. The objective of this book, devoted to the OECD Principles on Water Governance, is to use the OECD Principles as a common thread across the articles to draw lessons from theoretical work and practical experiences in water governance reforms; but also to only feature papers authored by groups of diverse stakeholders from different institutional backgrounds. This book was originally published as a special issue of Water International.

This report uses the OECD Principles on Water Governance as a tool for multi-stakeholder policy dialogue and practical assessment of the performance of flood governance systems. It applies the Principles to flood-prone contexts to help strengthen governance frameworks for managing the risks of “too much” water.

While the interdependence of the different aspects of water security and the relevance of ethical and distributive aspects is acknowledged in both policy circles and academia, a comprehensive introduction to water ethics is still missing. This book aims to fill that gap, by exploring the common thread that follows from three current interrelated debates: the allocation of water resources, the human right to water, and the commodification and privatisation of water services. These questions create a plea for alternatives to the predominantly consequentialist approach to dealing with water issues. The author explores the normative and ethical aspects of flood and water-related risks, and looks at the topic of responsibility: who should be responsible for correcting inequities, or taking remedial action in the case of pollution? These and other questions to be linked to ongoing discussion in other disciplines within philosophy, such as environmental ethics, climate ethics, the ethics of technology and climate justice, making this text important across a wide range of courses for upper undergraduate and graduate students.

Three years after the adoption of the OECD Water Governance Principles, this report takes stock of their use and evolving practices, and provides an indicator framework building on lessons learned from their implementation in different countries and contexts.

This republished Special Issue highlights recent and emergent concepts and approaches to water governance that re-centers the political in relation to water-related decision making, use, and management. To do so at once is to focus on diverse ontologies, meanings and values of water, and related contestations regarding its use, or its importance for livelihoods, identity, or place-making. Building on insights from science and technology studies, feminist, and postcolonial approaches, we engage broadly with the ways that water-related decision making is often depoliticized and evacuated of political content or meaning—and to what effect. Key themes that emerged from the contributions include the politics of water infrastructure and insecurity; participatory politics and multi-scalar governance dynamics; politics related to emergent technologies of water (bottled or packaged water, and water desalination); and Indigenous water governance.