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Drinking water risk management: local government collaboration in West Sweden

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  • Anna Bendz
  • Åsa Boholm

Abstract

Drinking water provisioning can be approached as a paradigmatic case of transboundary risk management that requires government collaboration. In Sweden, as in most other countries, the provision of safe drinking water and the control of its quality is a responsibility of local governments. This explorative case study investigates how local level decision-makers (politicians and public administrators) identify and understand risks to drinking water services; how they construe governmental responsibility and collaboration between local governments. The empirical results show that decision-makers identify a number of systemically interrelated technical, natural and social risks; that responsibility is understood to be complex and fragmented and that they refrain from collaboration despite clear advantages in theory. Even if the payoff is high from a broad societal perspective for inter-municipal collaborative risk management of drinking water services, collaboration on the local level is low. Institutional uncertainties relating to the allocation of responsibility, transaction costs and political costs for individual municipalities may explain the reluctance to collaborate in this case.

Suggested Citation

  • Anna Bendz & Åsa Boholm, 2019. "Drinking water risk management: local government collaboration in West Sweden," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(6), pages 674-691, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:jriskr:v:22:y:2019:i:6:p:674-691
    DOI: 10.1080/13669877.2018.1485168
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    Cited by:

    1. Jens Alm & Alexander Paulsson & Robert Jonsson, 2021. "Capacity in municipalities: Infrastructures, maintenance debts and ways of overcoming a run-to-failure mentality," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 36(2), pages 81-97, March.
    2. Milman, Anita & Ashjian James, Olivia & Macuch, Cameron, 2023. "Motivating the formation of partnerships by small water systems," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    3. Fekete, Alexander & Fuchs, Sven & Garschagen, Matthias & Hutter, Gérard & Klepp, Silja & Lüder, Catharina & Neise, Thomas & Sett, Dominic & von Elverfeldt, Kirsten & Wannewitz, Mia, 2022. "Adjustment or transformation? Disaster risk intervention examples from Austria, Indonesia, Kiribati and South Africa," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).

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