I will not say governance ...

I will not say governance has failed but over the years water governance is getting improved. Supply of drinking water is almost piped and metered with appropriate pricing with good revenue collection. The problem is with irrigation water. Irrigation water, though water is an economic good in the theoretical sense, cannot be termed as a pure private good which can be bought, sold and priced in the market based on demand and supply, but is a quasi-public, non-merit good which can neither be priced as per the free market mechanism nor can be provided exclusively as a subsidized or free service by the state.Thus, the pricing policy for irrigation water must take care of the appropriate balance before framing an economically justified irrigation water pricing policy. This is challenging especially in democratic developing countries.