This paper begins with the slow rate of progress in achieving the millennium development goals of environmental sustainability, especially in the areas of water and sanitation. This is due to the disconnect between the global rhetoric (which often focuses on water as an economic good) and social realities (such as the cultural attitudes towards water)
Here, the interaction between the social, technological, ecological and hydrological aspects of water and sanitation processes across different timeframes, shaped by power and social relationships across several different participant groups are termed as 'liquid dynamics'.
The paper emphasises that directed governance measures are neeed to ensure that the concerns of the marginalised and resource poor are addressed.
A water and sanitation system that provides marginalised groups with the services valuable to them , and copes with dynamic processes such as extreme events and changes in the magnitude of the system can be considered to be sustainable.
Acheiving this sustainability requires that the following issues be considered: