Leaky Governance: Alternative Service Delivery and the Myth of Water Utility Independence

Municipalities around the world face important water supply challenges. One response has been alternative service delivery (ASD). For its proponents, ASD is a way to have independence from municipal government without relinquishing control over the utility; for its detractors, it is privatization under another name. Yet the organizational barriers offered by ASD are at best leaky. Deeply interdependent, both water management and municipal governance must be strengthened to meet contemporary water supply needs.

Leaky Governance explores ASDs relation to neoliberalization, water supply, and local governance. Using Ontario as a case study, Kathryn Furlong paints a complex picture of both ASD and municipal government. She examines organizational models for water supply and how they are affected by shifting governance and institutional environments. Leaky Governance addresses increasingly pressing environmental, political, and social issues surrounding water supply and their relationship to urban governance and economics, as well as to broader issues in public policy.