Improve Water Governance Public infrastructure · public interest

Approach

Four pillars — with next steps you can take

Public water systems succeed or struggle on money, supervision, waste (literal and fiscal), and who gets served. The four pillars draw on public frameworks such as the OECD Principles on Water Governance, the IWA water balance, the EU Drinking Water Directive (2020/2184) and UN General Comment No. 15, turned into practical steps a board or utility can discuss.

01 · Budgets

Budgets

Capital plans, operating budgets, and transparent trade-offs so communities can see what is funded — and what is deferred.

  • Publish (or request) a one-page capital top-five plus deferred list before the next budget vote.
  • Ask the budget transparency questions in a finance briefing; record unanswered items.
  • Note whether water revenue is ring-fenced and where that rule is written.
02 · Oversight

Oversight

Clear roles for boards, regulators, and civic observers: what gets measured, reported, and challenged.

  • Adopt the quarterly oversight agenda (adapt to your rules) and stick to a short indicator set.
  • Set a published window for minutes or decision summaries.
  • Confirm a public channel for questions with a named response owner.
03 · Limiting waste

Limiting waste

Physical losses, commercial NRW, and fiscal waste in contracts and energy — managed with owners and review cycles.

  • Produce or update a rough annual NRW (or local loss) estimate — even if imperfect.
  • Write leak / repair priorities for the next quarter (hotspots and critical mains).
  • Assign an owner for metering/billing-gap review on a fixed cycle.
04 · Fair distribution

Fair distribution

Who gets connected or rationed first, how tariffs treat households, and how hardship is handled.

  • Write service-priority criteria before the next scarcity or expansion decision.
  • Explain the tariff structure on one public page (fixed vs volumetric; any lifeline rate).
  • Log allocation decisions in the decision log with a review date.

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