on the one hand some federal countries belgium canada the united states have almost entirely devoted water responsibilities to lower levels of government while in other federal states australia mexico the central government still plays a strong role strategic planning regulation etc on the other hand though some unitary states still retain significant water responsibilities at central government level with highly centralised water policy making chile israel japan korea most oecd unitary countries france greece the netherlands new zealand have de facto devoted responsibilities to lower levels of government in all cases the institutional mapping of water policy also relies on environmental territorial and hydrological considerations the plurality of mutually dependent actors across ministries and public agencies between levels of government and at subnational level raises significant multilevel governance challenges hence the need for diagnosing capacity and coordination challenges likely to hinder integrated water policy