Governing water service provision: Lessons from Australia

Using the Australian and institutional policy experience, this paper considers the problems associated with water governance and seeks to draw some general lessons for public policy. The paper is used to specifically explore the governance challenges that arise because of (1) the proclivity to regard water as 'special'; (2) the scope for political opportunism especially in drought; (3) the inherent uncertainty that attends water availability in some settings. We conclude that enhanced governance can be achieved, but diversions from cost recovery pricing can be difficult to reverse.