ABSTRACT
After providing a description of different types of water resources institutions at various territorial levels of administration and highlighting the need to avoid fragmentation in water resources management functions, this chapter offers possible guidelines as to the understanding of the various problems involved in the administration of water resources and the identification of possible alternative solutions. Emphasis is placed on the need for coordination mechanisms representating sectorial interests (national water councils, commissions or committees), on the role of a ‘regulatory’ institution in charge of, inter alia, policy and plan formulation, the administration of data and information, water rights administration and water pollution control, and on the need to operationalize water resources management by hydrological (or hydrogeological) units, i.e., by river basin or aquifer.
