ABSTRACT
The development of more effective institutions of water management has become a major challenge for planners and policy-makers in Europe and North America. Despite the advances that have been made in technology and the huge expenditures that have been incurred in developing water supply, systems of waste disposal and other water services, there remain major problems, associated particularly with scarcity of supplies, pollution, flooding and conflicts in the use of water. Convinced that the remedy to these deficiencies lies in the improvement of policies and administrative frameworks, governments in several countries have undertaken radical modifications of such frameworks in the past two decades. Elsewhere, less radical solutions have been adopted. The aim of this book is to examine what happened in Scotland in the postwar period, with particular reference to supply, sewerage and water quality, and to consider how far Scottish experience resembles that in other countries. It is based on documentary sources and on extensive discussions with those responsible at various levels for Scottish water management, though the confidential nature of the latter means that they have provided insights rather than direct evidence.
