Assessing Regional Cooperation in Water Services

Abstract

Water services, that is, water supply and wastewater disposal, are traditionally the responsibility of local governments. Many municipalities have joined forces to meet the challenges of increasing water quality requirements, aging infrastructures, and decreasing fiscal resources. Regional cooperation is claimed to generate benefits in various ways, but there are challenges to this assumption. This article assesses the benefits and challenges of regional cooperation through the following categories: economies of scale, socioeconomic and spatial disparities, autonomy and legitimacy, by comparing Finnish experiences with previous research findings. Our assessment concludes that the benefits and challenges of regional cooperation are not straightforward, not only dependent on the local context but also on the level and tradition of cooperation, especially on the degree of organizational autonomy.

Power and Pathways: Exploring Robustness, Cooperative Stability, and Power Relationships in Regional Infrastructure Investment and Water Supply Management Portfolio Pathways

“…With this transition in focus, it is now important to better understand how the development of regionally coordinated water management policies creates new challenges by increasing institutional complexity and exposing cooperating actors to new risks (Frone et al., 2008; Kurki et al., 2016; Sjöstrand, 2017). Rather than evaluating performance trade‐offs for a single actor, the design of cooperative strategies must account for the potentially competing interests of all cooperating partners (Madani & Dinar, 2012).…”

Cost-Benefit Analysis for Supporting Intermunicipal Decisions on Drinking Water Supply

“…Water supply provision has traditionally been a municipal responsibility. However, with a growing focus on how to best finance and implement water supply improvements to address ever-increasing challenges, such as demographic and climate changes, an intermunicipal, regional governance level is emerging in the water sector (Kurki et al 2016;Schmidt 2014). In Sweden, the responsibility of providing the water supply resides with the 290 municipalities.…”

“…Another driver for regionalization is to share unevenly spaced resources, for example, to secure access to sufficient water resources, treatment plants, and highly skilled personnel, and hence improve water supply reliability and safety. However, even though regional cooperation in the water sector takes place in several countries in Europe, the United States, the Middle East, and North Africa, research focusing on the associated societal effects is limited (Kurki et al 2016).…”