Social and Economic Importance of Water Services in the Built Environment: Need for More Structured Thinking

Community water supply takes priority over other water use purposes worldwide. Investment in water and sanitation systems in developing economies brings a multitudeof economic and social benefits. Water infrastructure systems across the world will deteriorateunless substantially more rehabilitation is done. This paper presents a structured and hierarchical framework for sustained water services development consisting of institutions, provision, water infrastructure and production of services that hopefully create better understanding of how to develop our systems and services as part of the built environment for more sustained futures.