Leaky Governance

Municipalities face important water supply challenges. One response has been to render utilities independent from municipal government through alternative service delivery (ASD). For its proponents, ASD provides needed autonomy from municipal government; for its detractors, it is privatization under another name. Using Ontario as a case study, Kathryn Furlong paints a complex picture of both ASD and municipal government. Examining organizational models for water supply and how they are affected by shifting governance and institutional environments, she reveals water management and municipal governance to be deeply interdependent and contends that both must be strengthened to meet contemporary water supply needs.