At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the Earth is facing a serious water crisis. The sector is plagued by a chronic lack of political support, poor governance and underinvestment. Hundreds of millions of people remain trapped in poverty and ill health and exposed to the risk of water-related disasters, environmental degradation and even political instability and conflict. This is especially the case in sub-Saharan Africa, a region on which this text is mainly focused.

The crisis appears to be more a crisis of governance than of resources, and societies are facing a number of social, economic and political challenges on how to govern water more effectively.

• List of Abbreviations and Acronyms
• List of Plates
• Introduction

1. The global water crisis
   1. The global water crisis in figures
   2. Increased global water stress
   3. Global climate change
   4. Tasks
2. Science of Water
   1. General physical and chemical properties of water
   2. Global water
   3. Freshwater use
   4. Water pollution
   5. Urban water supply and purification of potable water
   6. Drains, waste water and sewage treatment
   7. Tasks
3. Water Governance and Water Policy Issues
   1. Water Governance
   2. Hydropolitics
   3. Tasks
4. Water, Sustainability and Development
   1. General definition of sustainability
   2. Sustainable development and its applications to rural water supply in developing countries
   3. Gender, water and sanitation
   4. Inadvertent impacts on hydrological processes
   5. Large dams and impounding reservoirs
   6. Tasks
5. Methods and Techniques for Water Management
   1. Integrated Water Resource Management (lWRM)
   2. Methods of testing the water quality
   3. Tasks
6. Water and economics
   1. ‘Value’ of water
   2. Global financing of water supply
   3. The role of water in public-private-partnership (PPP)
   4. The role of water in cost recovery
   5. Water pricing
   6. Governance of water
   7. Targeting water valuation
   8. Conclusion
   9. Tasks
7. Management for sustainability
   1. Rural water supply and sanitation in sub-Saharan Africa
   2. Operation and maintenance: making water supply and sanitation a sustainable reality
   3. Tasks
8. Other case Studies from within SADC
   1. Case study: Water policy in Zambia
   2. Case study: Cuvelai Basin in Namibia
   3. Tasks
9. List of References
10. Plates

• Endnotes