State-centric water governance and ineffective coordination: developing a context-sensitive assessment in Iran’s rentier state

Water reforms fail mainly because stubborn contextual constraints are not effectively considered. This study proposes a context-sensitive water governance assessment by designing a comparative approach within a case study and making inductive analytic generalizations. The framework is applied empirically to the Zayandeh Rud basin in the rentier state of Iran. The results indicate that the rentier-weak state context has led to centralized rent-seeking governance and limited implementation capacity – characteristics of the entire country, not just the water sector. Water issues will, therefore, require context-sensitive, problem-driven analysis beyond addressing water governance challenges.