Building on a survey of 48 cities in OECD countries and emerging economies, the report analyses key factors affecting urban water governance, discusses trends in allocating roles and responsibilities across levels of government, and assesses multi-level governance gaps in urban water management. For more information see www.oecd.org/gov/water

1. Aziza Akhmouch, PhD & Oriana Romano, PhD
Water Governance Programme, OECD
Launch of the OECD Report :
Water Governance in Cities

2. Objective : are cities prepared for the future?
Source : OECD (2016) Water Governance in Cities, OECD Publishing, Paris

3. A Survey across 48 Cities in 17 Countries

4. Key challenges for water management in cities
Top 5 ranking out of a list of 65 words provided to the respondents of the 48 cities surveyed
Source : OECD (2016) Water Governance in Cities, OECD Publishing, Paris

5. Progress in urban water management, but room
for improvement
Share of water loss
Share of population with access to drinking water Share of population with access to sanitation
Per capita domestic water consumption
Source : OECD (2016) Water Governance in Cities, OECD Publishing, Paris

6. Key Factors affecting urban water governance
Source : OECD (2016) Water Governance in Cities, OECD Publishing, Paris

7. Grouping cities with common characteristics
Source : OECD (2016) Water Governance in Cities, OECD Publishing, Paris

8. Factors affecting urban water governance by categories of cities
Source : OECD (2016) Water Governance in Cities, OECD Publishing, Paris

9. Role and responsibilities of local governments in
water management
Source : OECD (2016) Water Governance in Cities, OECD Publishing, Paris

10. Typology of allocation of roles and
responsibilities for urban water policy making
Source : OECD (2016) Water Governance in Cities, OECD Publishing, Paris

11. Multi-level Governance Gaps
Source : OECD (2011) Water Governance in OECD Countries : a Multi-level Approach, OECD Publishing, Paris

12. Select governance gaps in surveyed cities (1/ 2)
Capacity Funding
Source : OECD (2016) Water Governance in Cities, OECD Publishing, Paris
Lack of
knowledge on
water
40%
Poor planning
40%
Difficulties in
doing ex ante
evaluation
44%
Difficulties in
doing
monitoring and
ex post
evaluation
50%
Lack of staff
and
managerial
capacities
65% Golden rule when
borrowing from
commercial
sources
23%
Limited
decentralisation of
fiscal power and
taxation
29%
Difficulties in
mobilising private
sector financial
contribution 33%
Lack of financial
guarantees for the
city to borrow
38%
Lack of multi-
annual strategic
plans and multi-
annual budgets
38%
Difficulties in
collecting tariffs
and charges from
water
46%
Weak
prioritisation of
investment 48%
Affordability
constraints
requiring tariff
adjustments 54%
Difficulties in
raising tariffs for
water services
69%

13. Select governance gaps in surveyed cities (2/ 2)
Information
Accountability
Lack of data on
the water
balance and
quality
27%
Absence or
incomplete water
users'registry
33%
Lack of
independent data
38%
Inconsistencies
in available data
38%
Data dispersed
across agencies
52%
Incomplete and
irregular data
collection
56%
Over technical
information
56%
lack of publicly
available data
on drinking
water quality
23%
Lack of
accounting
control through
regular financial
audits 23%
Lack of
competitive
procurement
process
27%
Weak judicial
system for
conflict
resolutioni
31%
Lack of
benchmarking
for service
providers'perfor
mance 44%
Lack of publicly
available data
on economic
and financial
performance
46%
Limited
monitoring
46%
Weak
stakeholder
engagement
48%
Limited
information
sharing across
local authorities
60%
Source : OECD (2016) Water Governance in Cities, OECD Publishing, Paris

14. Policy Responses : the 3Ps co-ordination framework
3Ps
People
PlacesPolicies
Source : OECD, (2016) Water Governance in Cities, OECD Publishing, Paris

15. Co-ordination across People
Focus  Stakeholder engagement
• Building trust and ownership
• Securing the willingness to pay
• Raising awareness on current/future risks
• Fostering accountability of city managers
• Managing conflicts on water allocation
• Ensuring the buy-in of reforms
• Setting convergent targets across policy areas.
• Water, a fragmented sector
• Service providers (main counterparts of city
departments ( 81%)
• New stakeholders ( e.g. property developers)
Frequency of interactions between city and
stakeholders
Source : OECD (2016) Water Governance in Cities, OECD Publishing, Paris

16. Co-ordination across Places
Rural – urban linkages Multiple scales
Focus Rural- Urban partnerships
• Building synergies
• Managing trade-offs
• Going beyond the zero-sum logics
• Integrated water resources management
Focus  Metropolitan governance
• Relevant scale for investment
• Information sharing
• Planning, policy making, strategy setting
Source : OECD (2016) Water Governance in Cities, OECD Publishing, Paris

17. Co-ordination across policies
Policies influencing urban water management
Focus  policy complementarities
• reconciling administrative, functional and hydrological logics
• efficiently allocating resources
• increasing capacity
Co-ordination mechanisms across policies
Source : OECD (2016) Water Governance in Cities, OECD Publishing, Paris

18. Next steps : implementation of the
OECD Principles on Water Governance at city level
Source: OECD “OECD Principles on Water Governance”, OECD, Paris, available at: www.oecd.org/gov/regionalpolicy/ OECD-Principles-on-Water-Governance-brochure.pdf.

19. THANK YOU
aziza.akhmouch@oecd.org
oriana.romano@oecd.org
WWW.OECD.ORG/GOV/WATER
OECD Water Governance in Cities
Report and 48 city profiles available at:
http://www.oecd.org/fr/publications/water-governance-in-cities-9789264251090-en.htm