EVOLUTION OF LEGISLATIONS AND REGULATIONS IN THE DUTCH WATER SUPPLY AND WASTEWATER SECTOR

The Dutch water supply and wastewater sector has come a long way from the Middle Ages when protection of man against water was more important. The trend has been reversed these days to protect water against man's activities. Parallel to these changes in the sector the legislations and regulations governing and regulating the water supply and wastewater sector also have been evolving. It is hypothesised in this research that the evolution of the water supply and the wastewater sector in the Netherlands, has been from a legislative to an economic regulatory approach. To establish whether this is true or not is the primary aim of this research. Additionally the research strives to answer the question as to why the evolution took place. The methodology adopted in this research is based on historical analysis to identify trends in the evolution of the legislations. It looks for evidence of application of prescriptive instruments representing the legislative approach and the incentive instruments representing an economic regulatory approach. Systematic analysis of the legislations has been performed whereby objectives and rationale of the legislations are stated, actors of implementation and target groups are identified and an inventory is made of the prescriptive and incentive based policy instruments. By conducting case studies gaps between the objectives of the legislations and the extent to which the sector realises these objectives has been estimated. This is done in order to understand the reasons for the evolution of the legislations.