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Water supply authorities in Europe preventing agricultural water pollution

Objective

To investigate how environmental policy makers can enable water supply organizations to diminish the pollution of drinking water resources by farmers affecting indirectly the behaviour of farmers.

The project involves a comparative study of three EU member states -Germany, the Netherlands, and Great Britain - with special attention to the EU context. The role of the EU as a coordinating authority regulating the quality of drinking water supply receives special attention. Although the way in wich the EU is regulating in a direct way through drinking water standards is examined, the accent is put on alternative paths to direct regulation, like indirect regulation through sub-national actors, and the strengthening of the regulatory power of water supply authorities at the local level.

A common theoretical framework is used to analyze the policy networks, so that the characteristics of effective institutional arrangements for the implementation and management of drinking water policy in Europe are understood.

The investigation of how environmental policy makers can enable water supply authorities to effectively regulate is based on what is known in policy science with respect to questions of indirect regulation and network management. In particular, the research focuses on the availability of different types of institutional resources necessary for effective regulation by water supply authorities. A distinction is made between legal, financial, information, organizational capacity, technological and time as a resource.

The research report will fit policy makers with concrete reccomendations on the implementation and management of drinking water policy in the European Union. The research project is also expected to yield scientific based intelligence, applicable in practice by water supply managers and their consultants on the strategic choice to be made with respect to the specific institutional setting in wich they are operating.

Call for proposal

Data not available

Coordinator

UNIVERSITY OF TWENTE
EU contribution
No data
Address
Drienerlolaan 5
7500 AE ENSCHEDE
Netherlands

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Total cost
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Participants (2)