Rethinking the global water challenge through a common good lens

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UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP) Working Paper Series: IIPP WP 2024-06

Author:

• Mariana Mazzucato | Founding Director and Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value, UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP)
• Mariam Zaqout | Postdoctoral Researcher in the Economics of Water, UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP)
   

Reference:

Mazzucato,M. and Zaqout, M. (2024). Rethinking the global water challenge through a common good lens. UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, Working Paper Series (IIPP WP 2024-06). Available at: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/public-purpose/publications/2024/mar/rethinking-global-water-challenge-through-common-good-lens

Abstract:

The hydrological cycle has become unstable and requires a new approach to governance. This paper makes three points. First, countries are globally interconnected through the hydrological cycle and anthropogenic impacts are causing it to destabilise. Second, the response of countries must be economy wide and systemic as all sectors of the economy are critically dependent on water. Third, tackling the water crisis requires collective action as no one country or region can combat the problem on its own. The paper suggests that conceptualising and governing water as a common good offers a productive framework through which the response to the water crisis can be (1) global, (2) economy wide and systemic, and (3) rooted in collective action. It argues that doing so requires going beyond existing economic goods scholarship and thus expanding the notion of water as either a public good, a private good or a common pool resource.