Contested governance of drinking water provisioning services in Nepal’s transboundary river basins

•Insufficient research on the institutional aspects of the ecosystem service governance.•How governance enables the ecosystem services approach to source water protection.•Rural to urban water transfers in transboundary river basin management in central Nepal.•Collaborative governance improves adversarial situations rather than empowerment.•Ecosystem service governance should empower vulnerable communities. Governance and management of ecosystem services involve a diversity of institutional mechanisms and policy processes from voluntary to regulatory and collaborative approaches. The governance structures and policy processes are often contested, particularly when stakeholder concerns are insufficiently addressed, particularly of those who are most affected by policy decisions. This research examines how collaborative governance enables the ecosystem services approach to source water protection, thereby addressing contested governance problems and policy processes in transboundary river basins in central Nepal. The data were collected using key informant interviews, policy workshops, policy document review, and direct observation. Research results suggest that the state established collaborative governance institutions to improve already adversarial situations rather than in the co-management of water provisioning and other ecosystem services. We conclude that collaborative governance should focus on empowering vulnerable communities to speak for themselves and for the natural environment, particularly to maintain the sustainable flow of multiple ecosystem services for current and future generations.