‘Our Water Supply is being Managed like a Rumshop’: Water Governance in Barbados

The successful development of the country's economy is dependent on the provision of good public infrastructure such as water services. Water and water infrastructure not only provides a fundamental requirement of households but is also essential for productive economic activities. Thus the sound governance of water is also of critical importance to the functioning of the economy. Symptoms of poor governance include: high unaccounted for water, lack of proper metering, ineffective collection of water revenue, uneconomic tariffs, excessive staff of water service provider, lack of accountability and conflict of roles in water management. There is evidence that indicates that most of these symptoms are present in Barbados' system of water governance. At the same time climate change poses a significant threat to the sustainability of the country's water system. However, the paper argues that unless the current deficiencies in water governance are addressed then climate change will only make a poor situation worse.