Water management in Europe: beyond the privatization debate

Abstract

Bernard J. BARRAQUÉ, Water management in Europe : beyond the privatization debate. The historical and comparative analyse of the development of the industry and institutions of water (catchment, sewerage, and resource management) in five European countries (Great Britain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and France) would suggest that the "public-private" debate in water management which recurs periodically, is only masking much larger issues which are transforming water management. A regional level of management is evident everywhere, but the local level has nonetheless not disappeared. The relationship between political authority, the technical personnel responsible for water and citizens is undergoing profound change, becoming more and more a matter for urban and environmental engineering than for civil and sanitation engineering, which constituted the framework at the beginning of the water industry.