There are several examples of highly fragmented contexts (Canada, France, Mexico) where the multiple actors and layers usually perceived as obstacles to policy coherence have been compensated by the adoption of sound co-ordination mechanisms (see below) that reduced, to a more or less important degree, the impact of sectoral fragmentation. In federal states with important geographical and hydrological disparities (Australia, Canada, the United States), or strong regional characteristics (Belgium), local and regional authorities are the main actors in water-resources management and service delivery. In most cases (EU countries), sub-national governments play a significant role in the design and implementation of water policies, together with the central government, while in some countries (Chile, Israel, Japan, Korea), they are mostly “implementers” of central government policies, with low involvement in the “design” stage. In addition, there are very few significant river basin scale organisations and the institutional mapping and governance challenges vary greatly from one state to another.