Success factors in self financing local water management : a contribution to the Third World Water Forum

With a growing world population, the use of water as a renewable resource is increasing. This booklet, a result of preparatory activities for a session dedicated to success factors of self-financing local water management planned for the Third World Water Forum, pays primarily attention to the self-organising and self-financing abilities of stakeholders.

The authors make use of Dutch experiences to identify success factors for self-financing local water management. They try, successfully, to avoid generating blueprints, as it would be a denial of the social, geographical and cultural identity of water systems and communities. The focus lies on management of water resources and related activities, like flood protection, pollution prevention, wastewater treatment and, irrigation and drainage. Although no specific attention is paid to drinking water or sanitation the success factors in this booklet should be applicable to these services too. In order to assess the Dutch examples and to define key success factors of global importance, a comparison was made with valuable examples of local water management in other countries. This booklet has been enriched with case studies from Egypt, India, Hungary, Mexico and South Africa. It is a compilation of experiences, from which building blocks and success factors are distilled. It aims to present a practical document for those who wish to organise water management on a local level with a large amount of stakeholder involvement, financially as well as democratically. As organisation and finance are closely linked, both topics are reviewed in close connection.