This introduction reviews the experience of the water and sanitation sector since the 1990 New Delhi Statement – Some for All Rather than More for Some. It explores the policy pathways and contested politics that took place as a result of three key years in the early 1990s, from the issuing of the New Delhi Statement in 1990, through the Dublin Statement on Water and Sustainable Development in 1992, to the output of the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro. These key events have shaped policy and practice over a period of two decades, including generating major contestation over the idea of water as an economic good. Past lessons suggest that the wider global water and sanitation community needs to rethink approaches and emphases, shifting from targets and global pronouncement to issues concerning sustainability, global/local mismatches, contested knowledges, equity, politics and power.