An “hydro-political” assessment of water governance in the Volta Basin is one of two preparatory activities intended to guide and inform the development of a generic methodological model for building local indigenous institutional principles into international/transboundary river basin institutional arrangements. This report details from a “top-down” perspective, the historical developments of water governance of the Volta River Basin, paying special attention to the economic, political and social dynamics of water management within the legal and institutional frameworks in the Ghana and Burkina Faso portions of the Volta basin. The findings are based primarily on literature review, interviews with some key professionals and to some extent, previous knowledge and field experience