ABSTRACT
The case studies show that, in many respects, water resource administration has made and continues to make progress. They also show, however, that the present state of water management is far from optimum and that many issues inherent to water system operation are often being poorly handled or even ignored by those running the systems. Putting to one side the influences of "external factors" on optimum water system operation, there remain many other important characteristics of management which are clearly internal even to the narrowest definition of water management. The integration of all water uses into the Junta de Vigilancia in Limari is one step in the direction of a systems' approach to management, but no more than that. The countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, with few exceptions, are highly centralized, and the use of the river basin as the organizational unit for water management would require an almost revolutionary change within the organization of government.
