The problems are many. Water is often mismanaged due to perverse incentives and inappropriate policies. Policy incentives are seldom aligned with the economic, social, and environmental values that water services provide. Also, when the supply of water is increased without corresponding incentives, demand rises to meet the new level of supply, resulting in a higher level of water dependence and inefficiency. This is not just about externalities – it is about getting stuck in the wrong kind of market, and it is also inherently about justice worldwide.

What is needed is systemic change in how water is valued. One that spurs a wave of innovations, capacity-building and investments, evaluating them not in terms of short-run costs and benefits but for how they can catalyse long-run benefits across social, economic, cultural, and ecological contexts. It is time for a transition from an economic system that aims at maximising returns on investment and moves along a water-intensive path, taking as much water as it can and too often polluting it without regard for water needs, to sound water stewardship.