A decade ago, public and private water and sanitation were typically presented as very distinct alternatives. Today effective governance is more often presented as a necessary ingredient of private service provision. This working paper examines some of the false starts and misleading statistics, and then goes on to review some of the widely promoted principles of water and sanitation governance (such as transparency, inclusivity, coherence and equity) and what they imply for private water provision in deprived urban areas. Particular attention is given to the local regulation of private provision, the relevance of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), and the challenge of corruption.