Systemic Conditions Affecting the Universalisation of Water and Sanitation Services: A Sociological Exploration

The article examines current global trends in the expansion of water and sanitation services, and discusses the systemic conditions affecting their provision. It pays particular attention to structural social inequalities affecting the access to these services, and to the inertial forces unleashed by neoliberal reforms in water and sanitation, which will continue to have a negative effect on the project of universalisation of these services. The article supports existing demands for the adoption of integrated approaches to the organisation of water and sanitation.