This paper examines past scenarios and future prospects for the development of water management institutions and provisions for water delivery in Cameroon. The major aim of the paper is to reconstruct the history of water management that led to the current water delivery system in Cameroon using the exploratory approach of data analysis supported with diagrams. As a result, data obtained from personal observation and secondary sources were used to capture the objectives of the inquiry. The paper observed that despite the classification of Cameroon as a water surplus country; the country's 18 million inhabitants confront the hardships from day to day and experience a low level of standard of living. This is due to the piecemeal occurrence of water development process over time from pre-colonial period to present. The non-existence of proper water policy and water law in the presence of water structures that are not properly developed in a young democracy have, thus, reinforced the situation of poor provisioning of water in the country. Consequently, the paper concludes that the poor provisioning of water in Cameroon is attributed to the lack of development of water management institutions and structures; it suggests a set of broad guidelines for developing water institutions.

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Many Cameroonian households are confronted with short supply of drinking water as the state-owned water corporation failed to meet the efficient water delivery objectives. As a result, the privatisation drive took place with of course some consequent impacts. The current study is an attempt to quantify these impacts. The major impacts are in terms of decreased access to water to households by 8 percent and exposure of more than 70 percent of households to irregular water supply for more than half a month. However, some 92 percent of the households rate the quality of water obtained from the private water company good. Also, 56 percent of the households prefer the service delivery by the private company over that of the state-operated water supply. Besides, both the minimum and maximum amount households wish to pay per cubic meter of water for continued private water provision exceeds the current rate by 5.59 and 225.99 percent, respectively. JEL Codes: Q25, L33

Although South Africa has adopted a very modern permit/license system to control access to water as a resource, the attainment of the lofty objectives (efficiency, equity and sustainability) of the National Water Act of 1998 depends on two critical factors: (1) the institutional efficiency of the water management system; and (2) the development of water markets and their efficient functioning. This study lists a number of concerns that the Act is not geared to resolve efficiently or in a timely manner. These concerns include the high administrative costs of implementation, poor incentives for long-term investments, bureaucratic inefficiency, practical problems in water pricing and adaptability to climate change threat. There is a need to re-think the ways and means with which to make water distribution more efficient in the country. One possible solution would be to develop water markets in the country.