Perspectives on Water Governance Erika Weinthal Book Review Essay Perspectives on Water Governance

Although fresh water only comprises 2.5 percent of all water resources world-wide, it is essential for sustaining human life. Yet, approximately 1.1 billion people lack access to any type of safe drinking water. As a direct consequence, about 1.6 million people die every year from waterborne illnesses (e.g., diarrhea and cholera) of whom 90 percent are children under ªve, primarily in develop-ing countries.1 In 2000, the United Nations Millennium Summit afªrmed the importance of safe drinking water for poverty alleviation as embedded in Goal 7, Target 10 of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which seeks to halve by 2015 the number of people worldwide without adequate access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. The common feature of the three books under review here is their atten-tion to water. Even then, they cover different types of water resources and uses (surface water versus groundwater; irrigation water versus drinking water) and at different levels of scale (villages, national governments, and international treaties). They also cover different theoretical perspectives, encapsulating