a stronger consultative role of the river basin committees and greater devolution of deliberative and executive powers to water agencies would match decisionmaking to capacity and accountability lines and result in less unimplemented decisions this does not imply deflating the role of the national and state water resources councils or overlooking the role of basin committees it would require water agencies to consult with the advisory councils and the committees and give thorough explanations when they do not follow their advice in order to guarantee transparency and accountability another requisite is that water agencies be totally neutral and independent from any vested interests from water users in order to have such deliberative roles water charges in several cases are applied and governed at both state and federal levels the issue of scale includes differences in terms of charge rates across states and federal waters the cost of inaction and the related consequences on water quantity and quality when charges are not applied and the lack of harmonisation for audit and accountability processes across levels of government