Discuss why some governments find it difficult to provide access to safe drinking water for all their people.

Possible themes may include:

• safe drinking water and provision/access/affordability
• physical water scarcity and economic water scarcity
• disparities in access
• control of supply (privatization/nationalization)
• possible government corruption
• privatization
• lack of infrastructure in rural areas.

Good responses that score well at AO3 (synthesis/evaluation) will consider both sides of this question. An  examination of both sides may involve consideration of those national or regional governments that find it difficult to provide access and those that are able. Other approaches that examine both sides may discuss variations in the
level of difficulty. Answers may use one or more of the following approaches:

Spatial – Some governments are in countries that suffer from physical water scarcity, which limits the supply and/or suffer from economic water scarcity, which limits access. This is mainly an issue in low-income countries but it is possible that it can be an issue in countries of all levels of wealth. Responses may also look at how the size of the country may pose challenges for water provision.

Temporal – Overcoming physical water scarcity may take a lot longer to achieve than overcoming issues associated with economic water scarcity.

Perspectives – Some governments may prioritize other development goals over the provision of safe water to all people, and may even deliberately marginalize some minority communities by not providing safe water.

At band D, responses will describe the provision of safe drinking water in countries, possibly with some description of how some segments of the local population are better served than others (due to wealth, location of residence, etc).

At band E, responses will either explain “two sides” of the question or will synthesize well developed themes to discuss how some segments of the population lack access to safe water because of factors such as wealth, location of residence, etc.

At band F, expect both.

Marks should be allocated according to the markbands.