The term governance is the broad social system of governing, encompassing the allocation and regulation of resources including natural resources, and the formal and informal institutions through which such authority is exercised. Importantly, the quality of governance arrangements affects. Conditions for good governance have been cited as participation, accountability, inclusiveness, transparency and responsiveness (Rogers and Hall, 2003). When systems of governance do not meet such conditions, terms such as poor governance are applied. Water governance, therefore, is a subset of the broader systems of governance necessary for achieving economic, social and environmental outcomes.

 

In this context, water governance has been defined as the political, social, economic and administrative systems that are in place to develop and manage water resources and delivery of services at different levels of society (GWP)[1]. The concept of water governance includes the design of public policies and institutional frameworks that are socially acceptable and have strong social support. Water policies and the process for their formation should have as its end goal the sustainable development of water resources.

 

The European Union has established a Programme for Water Governance (PfWG), for the three regions of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific. A Pacific region submission was made in 2002 by SOPAC. The submission proposed three pilot exercises for water governance at different ‘levels’ or scales, namely: national, major utility and local catchment based. The overall PfWG goal was identified as:

 

“to mainstream the principles of good water governance into day to day applications and pilot projects so as to assist in achieving sustainable water resource management and provision of water services".