Corruption in the water sector is not something new. In fact, it might be one of the oldest forms of corruption. All civilisations have evolved around water, the Indus, the Nile, Euphrates and Tigris, Tiber, the tank systems in Sri Lanka, etc
Water is an element that humans have organised and (mostly) cooperated around. As water was one of the first resources whose use was regulated, it is likely that it was the first resource that was misused for personal gain i.e. corruption.
The reason why water has been an organising force on our societies lays both in its importance for all human activities and in its spatial and geographical distribution, e.g. SA is quite well endowed on average, but the monsoon climate calls for organisation.
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