As a mechanism to pool resources and capacity across municipalities within the metropolitan area, metropolitan governance can help handle interdependencies across authorities and reduce fragmentation to manage water resources and water services more efficiently. In a context rife with financial constraints, this form of governance arrangement gains traction. Central governments have a role to play in incentivising cities to explore it more systematically among the range of options for co-ordinating cross-scale water management. Where established, they are seen as an institutional arrangement that can address several of the governance gaps identified above, promoting transparency, policy coherence and co-ordination, continuity, predictability and credibility of decision-making, and accountability to users.