GEF

Unit 4  |  The Global Water Crisis 111 Water has been traditionally regarded as a public good that is best supplied by the natural monopoly of the state. This approach is well-established in the U.S. and other countries, and has arguably been very successful at providing reliable and clean water for the full range of human uses. A further advantage of the public good approach to water is that it is able to value the role of water in ecosystems, an important benefit that is not normally captured by markets. 4.5  Water Governance and Collaboration Despite its overwhelming scale, the global water crisis is giving rise to a burgeoning movement to more sustainably use and manage precious water resources. A growing segment of the global population is becoming engaged with water issues and ways of solving the water crisis. In tandem with citizen involve- ment, national governments and international organizations are prioritizing water sustainability much more intensively than in the past. Several international agreements that include water compo- nents have been drafted. The most well-known, the Dublin Statement on Water and Sustainable Development, was formulated in 1992 in order to lay out principles of sustainable water use and management. The Dublin Statement includes four general principles on water and sustainability: ■■ Principle 1: Fresh water is a finite and vulnerable resource, essential to sustain life, development and the environment. ■■ Principle 2: Water development and management should be based on a participatory approach, involving users, planners and policy-makers at all levels.