Topic Guide: Corruption in Water and Sanitation Sector

A number of factors make water management particularly vulnerable to corruption. Growing water scarcity due to climate change, population growth, urban sprawl and economic development raises the stakes in the water sector and thereby exacerbates the integrity risks.

Water management also typically involves large-scale infrastructure projects, such as dams, that are technically complex, capital intensive and difficult to monitor, and involve a small number of actors and providers with sweeping discretionary power. Indeed, the technical complexity of the sector makes it difficult for civil society to meaningfully participate in decision making, monitoring and oversight.[1]

In addition, water resources increasingly become a security issue in many countries and such large projects are perceived to be of high strategic and security value.[2]

n this context, civil society operates in a restricted space, which limits further its opportunities to provide oversight. In some countries, protestors of these mega-projects are quashed by the state security forces, where 2016 saw a record number of land and water rights defenders killed.[3]

As with other public services, corruption can occur at all stages of the water supply chain, from policy formulation to the management of organisational resources and to the point of service delivery.