page_title: Water supply
section_title: Policy and regulation
hierarchical_section_title: Water supply / Institutional responsibility and governance / Policy and regulation
caption_attribution_description: English: Water crisis warning in Cape Town: Cut water use now! Afrikaans: Waterkrisiswaarskuwing in Kaapstad: Verlaag watergebruik nou! Deutsch: Wasserkrise in Kapstadt: Jetzt Wasserverbrauch vermindern! IsiXhosa: Isilumkiso sentlekele yokunqongophala kwamanzi: Nciphisa usetyenziso lwamanzi ngoku!
context_page_description: Water supply is the provision of water by public utilities, commercial organisations, community endeavors or by individuals, usually via a system of pumps and pipes. Irrigation is covered separately.
context_section_description: Water supply policies and regulation are usually defined by one or several Ministries, in consultation with the legislative branch. In the United States the United States Environmental Protection Agency, whose administrator reports directly to the President, is responsible for water and sanitation policy and standard setting within the executive branch. In other countries responsibility for sector policy is entrusted to a Ministry of Environment (such as in Mexico and Colombia), to a Ministry of Health (such as in Panama, Honduras and Uruguay), a Ministry of Public Works (such as in Ecuador and Haiti), a Ministry of Economy (such as in German states) or a Ministry of Energy (such as in Iran). A few countries, such as Jordan and Bolivia, even have a Ministry of Water. Often several Ministries share responsibilities for water supply.
  In the European Union, important policy functions have been entrusted to the supranational level. Policy and regulatory functions include the setting of tariff rules and the approval of tariff increases; setting, monitoring and enforcing norms for quality of service and environmental protection; benchmarking the performance of service providers; and reforms in the structure of institutions responsible for service provision. The distinction between policy functions and regulatory functions is not always clear-cut. In some countries they are both entrusted to Ministries, but in others regulatory functions are entrusted to agencies that are separate from Ministries.
caption: Cape Town water crisis warning, July 2018
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