Should Water Resources be Managed as a Public or as a Private, Economic Good – the Croatian Dilemma

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The goal of this work is to provide a new outlook on the possibilities of water-resource management in the Republic of Croatia. Water resources and water supply systems are of vital and strategic significance for Croatia. Therefore, it is essential to develop a sustainable model for managing them. This will in turn ensure the access to drinkable water for the maximum number of people, the maintenance of high water quality levels, high quality water supply systems and the sufficient water reserves for the future generations. The process of selecting the model for managing water resources is difficult and consists of many uncertainties, especially because of the negative economic trends occurring in Croatia over the last couple of decades. This created an unfavorable climate for independent decision making concerning the management of the country's strategic water resources. The current public opinion nurtures a belief that Croatia is being forced to privatize the governmental institutions which manage the water resources and that will lead to an array of negative trends resulting in water price increase, overexploitation and even restrictions of use for the most vulnerable sections of the society. Privatization is the often used as a model of dealing with the state property, especially after the change of the socio-economic system. It has often been put to use in Croatia, but unfortunately, in a great number of cases it has not created the desired results. In this work, cases from Argentina, United Kingdom, India and Bolivia will be analyzed, which will in turn provide a new outlook on this problem. The findings may also serve as assistance to the decision makers regarding the management of water resources. In this work, both arguments in favor and against the privatization of water have been analyzed and backed by the examples. In the conclusion, the authors propose a franchise model as alternative which that may satisfy the interests of the private investors, the state and ordinary citizens.