The lack of sufficient access to clean water is a common problem faced
by communities, efforts to alleviate poverty and gender inequality and
improve economic growth in developing countries. While reforms have been
implemented to manage water resources, these have taken little notice of
how people use and manage their water and have had limited effect at the
ground level. On the other hand, regulations developed within
communities are livelihood-oriented and provide incentives for
collective action but they can also be hierarchal, enforcing power and
gender inequalities. This book shows how bringing together the strengths
of community-based laws rooted in user participation and the formalized
legal systems of the public sector, water management regimes will be
more able to reach their goals.