Water utilities : governance and performance

This issue of Network Industries Quarterly is devoted to water utilities, their governance and their performance. With growing urbanization, pollution and water stress, utilities are ever more challenged to provide safe and affordable drinking water in an ecologically sustainable manner. Are they and will they in the future be up to the task? What is and should be the right size to do this? What is and should be the best governance of them (ownership, legal structure, regulation) to make sure that they can deliver? What is and should be the most appropriate articulation between governance of the water resource and governance of the utility? These are some of the questions that the four papers seek to address. The examples the authors refer to pertain mainly to Latin America, namely Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina.-- When utility aggregations fail to deliver cost savings, Michael Klien -- The governance of water and wastewater provision in Brazil: are there clear goals?, Juliana Smiderle, Morganna Capodeferro, Pedro Fernandes, Edson Gonçalves, Joisa Dutra -- The contextual and jurisdictional framework for metropolitan water provision in Mexico: the case of the Monterrey metropolitan area, Ismael Aguilar-Barajas, Aldo I. Ramírez -- Mapping and strengthening water and sanitation service regulation in Argentina: from diagnosis to policy recommendations, Maria Salvetti, Aziza Akhmouch, Antonio Cañamas-Catal