Presented at the 14th OECD WGI Meeting on November 2-3 2020

1. WATER GOVERNANCE
AS A MEANS TO AN END:
A STOCKTAKING OF IMPACTS AND
MEASUREMENT FRAMEWORKS
Oriana Romano & Colette Ashley
OECD Water Governance Programme
Cities, Urban Policies and Sustainable Development Division,
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

2. From the 13th to the 14th OECD WGI meeting
September-
December 2019
and 13th WGI
Meeting
(January 2020)
14th WGI
Meeting
(November
2020)
9th World
Water Forum
Voting of
hypotheses
linking Principles
to impacts
Stock taking Working Paper

3. What is the paper about?
Stock taking of impacts and
measurement frameworks linked to
Principles 2, 3, 6, 7, 9 and 10.
Why?
To respond to the questions: Are there
evidences of the impacts of water
governance on water management? How
to measure these impacts?
Essentials about the draft paper
Identify gaps X New indicators

4. Measuring impacts
Source: OECD (2018), Implementing the OECD Principles on Water Governance: Indicator
Framework and Evolving Practices, OECD Studies on Water, OECD Publishing, Paris,
https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264292659-en
CAVEATS
 No comprehensive framework to measure
impacts of water governance
 Impact indicators are not widely used
 Outcomes vs long term impacts
 Impacts dependents on other factors than
water governance (lack of causal link)
 Subjectivity

5. Selection of Principles
Three clusters of impacts
Literature review
In-depth interviews
Methodology
Principle 2: Appropriate scale
Principle 3: Policy coherence
Principle 6: Financing
Principle 7: Regulatory frameworks
Principle 9: Integrity and transparency
Principle 10: Stakeholder engagement
Impact #1: Access (water services)
Impact#2: Environment (water quality)
Impact #3: Safety (flood)

6. Impact #1: Better provision of water services
Principles Outcomes Examples
Principle 2: Appropriate scale Adequate access (urban and rural alike) and reach
economies of scale.
In Portugal, from 1992 to 2016, households with
access to public sewerage systems increased
from 60% to 83%, and 82% of those households
are connected to a wastewater treatment plant.
Principle 6: Financing Efficient use of water and financial stability of
water operators
In the UK at this current rate of expenditure, by
2050, the number of water main bursts will
increase by 20%, the number of interruptions to
water supplies will increase by 25% and leakage
will increase by 40% unless other leakage
control measures are significantly increased.
Principle 9: Integrity and
transparency
Procurement and audits of WSS utilities In 2016, the EU performed an evaluation of 23
water supply and sanitation projects in sub-
Saharan Africa and found that less than half of
the projects yielded results meeting the
beneficiaries’ needs, due to accountability gaps.
Principle 10: Stakeholder
engagement
Feedback on new or ongoing projects so that
utilities can ensure better provision of water
services to citizens
Brazil’s state program in São Paulo’s survey of
and engagement with citizens let to
improvements in WSS services- target
population of 191,700 connections

7. Impact #2: Better water quality
Principles Outcomes Examples
Principle 2: Appropriate
scale
Improved status of water bodies River basin authorities measure whether ecological
flows are attained (EU)
Principle 3: Policy
coherence
Reduction pollutant discharges from various
sector implementation of ecological/minimum
flow requirements
Integration of EU policies and laws (Nitrates Directive,
Natures Directive, UWWTD, Wildlife Trade Regulations,
etc.) to avoid extinction of the sturgeon
Principle 7: Regulatory
frameworks
Water pollution monitoring; reduced phosphorus
emissions in the watershed;
New Zealand’s Regional Plan Variation 5 is a legal
framework that has led to improvements of Lake
Taupo’s water quality- nitrogen levels.
Principle 9: Integrity
and transparency
Public record of infringement cases; access to
information and public documents
European Court of Justice holds Member States
accountable if they do not fulfill requirements of WFD
Principle 10:
Stakeholder
engagement
Stronger agreements that benefit water quality in
the long-term; fund raising for conservation
measures and restoration measures
The artificial lake in Sihwa District (Korea) shows how
the collective efforts of the central government, local
authorities, private sector, local residents and experts
resulted in a 20% reduction of nitrate emissions in
watershed.

8. Impact #3: Reduction of risks of floods
Principles Outcomes Examples
Principle 2: Appropriate scale Reduction of properties at risk of flood Reduction of risk of flooding to 7
000 properties, through the
Metropolitan Glasgow Strategic
Drainage Partnership
Principle 3: Policy coherence Reduced run off; flood damages avoided in new
buildings.
Netherlands Water assessment
Principle 6: Financing Reduced risks posed by water-related disasters due
to risk financing instruments
Japan noted the significant effect
of preventive measures: if the
Levee Reinforcement prevention
project had been implemented
before the 2000 Tokai storm flood,
USD 5 billion would have been
saved.

9. Next steps/ planned activities:
• Further research needed: better clarification of outcome/ impacts; tangible vs non-tangible
outcomes; selection of indicators
• Further expert views and inclusion of results in the Working Paper
Questions:
• How to catch more efficiently the causal link between water governance and impacts?
• How lessons and examples collected can be scaled up to identify what practices works,
through which operational functions and why?
Next steps towards the 9th World Water Forum

10. THANK YOU
Oriana.Romano@oecd.org