| Popis: |
Water services in Croatia are mostly governed in authoritative and hierarchical manner, and they are provided exclusively by public companies as a public service. Croatian Waters together with the responsible Ministry make all relevant decisions, without good-quality consultations with policy implementing actors and other key stakeholders: local public water companies, local governments, citizens' associations and citizens. In Croatia therefore dominates a model of the 'bureaucratic governance', but with elements of the 'new public management', such as private concessions on waste-water treatment service and all increasing financial dependence on selling the service to consumers, rather than on the public budget. Elements of 'participatory governance' are not present. Governance reform of the water services sector that is currently being implemented can contribute to solving numerous problems of efficiency, but some of its proposed solutions in the same time make water supply and sanitation services and its infrastructure more vulnerable to privatisation. However, in the long run the privatisation might happen "out of necessity" by keeping the current situation with party- political management and employing policy together with unsustainable planning and spending. Instead on centralised or market approach, the reform should be based on participatory governance. Only through involvement of independent experts, workers, citizens' associations and users of services in the governance processes it is possible in the long term to increase quality of the water services, together with ensuring sustainability of the water infrastructure and resources. |
