Ensuring that everybody has access to drinking water, sanitation and enough nutritious food, which depends on water to grow it, are prerequisites for a healthy life. Water management is not just about the technical aspects of water supply and sanitation. It is equally about our water governance systems, including policies, regulation and societal perception of water rights. This book presents many helpful examples of how different societies are dealing with these issues and of the performance of public and private sector players in this important arena.' - Colin Chartres, International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Colombo, Sri Lanka'I congratulate the Institute of Water Policy, the two editors and the contributors for a very thoughtful book on urban water governance. Our objective is to deliver sustainable water and sanitation services to our people. This book contains useful lessons on how to achieve that objective.' - Tommy Koh, Chairman, Governing Council, Asia-Pacific Water Forum This insightful book explores urban water governance challenges in different parts of the world and highlights the advantages and disadvantages of publicly run, privatized, and public-private partnership managed water facilities. The contributors expertly discuss various types of public and private water governance architectures as well as identifying the trends, challenges, opportunities and the shifts in perceptions with regard to the provision of water supply services. Many chapters are dedicated to analyzing the urban water supply scenarios in selected countries, with specific focus on legal, policy and institutional frameworks. The study reveals that while private sector participation has been largely promoted by multilateral institutions as part of institutional and financial reforms, ultimately governments bear the major responsibility for provision of water supply services either as 'service provider' or as 'regulator and policy-maker'. Containing a detailed overview and analysis of the global urban water supply sector, this timely book will strongly appeal to academics, researchers and university students following water-related courses. Water sector professionals, water regulators and public officers as well as managers and researchers employed by private sector water operators will also find plenty of invaluable information in this important resource. Contributors include: A. Akintoye, L. Bhullar, E. Chong, C. Dewan, S. Ferdous Hoque, V. Garcia, A. Gunawansa, A. Kajenthira, A. Mahalingham, C. Menard, S. Murthy, A. Naser, B. Olmos Giuponni, M. Paddon, E. Perard, S. Renukappa, R. Tiong, H. Tropp, A. Wong, S. Zheng

The right to sanitation has been recognised in India for more than two decades, and progressively integrated into the international human rights law framework since the beginning of the century. The recognition of the right itself is not a matter for debate in India since courts have repeatedly affirmed its existence as a right deriving from the fundamental right to life. Key issues arise in the context of conceptualisation and realisation of the right and relate to the existence and/or the scope of a law and policy framework for the realisation of the right to sanitation for all, the scope of the right, the links with other rights such as health and gender equality, as well as issues of specific relevance in the Indian context, such as manual scavenging, and more generally, caste-based discrimination and exploitation linked to sanitation work. In a context where sanitation challenges are more severe in India than in many other countries, this book represents the first effort to conceptually engage with the right to sanitation and its multiple dimensions in India. It also analyses the right to sanitation in India in the broader international and comparative setting.