disputes over water are often related more to the social economic and institutional context than they are to the technical factors governing the availability of water resources in many countries enforcement of legislation is weak and judicial systems are inadequate this is detrimental to sustainable water use and service provision in many ways it reduces economic growth undermines performance and effectiveness discourages investments in the water sector and frustrates stakeholder participation in the decisionmaking process in most oecd countries decisionmaking power over water has been delegated to lower levels of government bottomup demanddriven approaches that combine the experience knowledge and understanding of various local actors need an overall framework for managing mutual dependencies and creating synergy