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Developing countries have adopted public–private partnerships for water infrastructure utilities because of rapid urbanisation and economic growth along with the public sector’s lack of capital and technical capacity. However, water public–private partnerships have shown mixed results; many of them have encountered problems and even failed. Motivated by such failures, this study aims to explore the reasons behind failed water public–private partnerships in the last two and a half decades. Cases of 16 failed water public–private partnerships from different developing countries and regions have been compiled and thoroughly investigated, which disclosed a number of potential failure reasons: soaring tariffs, non-payment of bills, incapability of the public sector, poor technical performance of the private sector, macroeconomic instability, conflicts between public and private sectors, social and political opposition to privatisation, lack of transparency, fluctuations in exchange rates, change in related laws and others. The failure reasons identified are further analysed to develop their causal interrelationships through event mapping. Outputs of this study would facilitate stakeholders of water public–private partnership in taking appropriate actions to overcome these failure causes and ensure the success of future projects.

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