Control Capacity — The Netherlands

In this chapter we discuss the capacity of water suppliers to control the prevention of pollution. This ‘control capacity’ specifically concerns the relationship between water suppliers and farmers. Although water suppliers have no regulatory competence in this relationship, regulations do play a background role. On the one hand, water suppliers are regulated by drinking water quality standards, which force them to produce drinking water above a specified quality level. On the other hand, farmers are regulated by the Dutch national and provincial government, which impose restrictions on the use of fertilizers and pesticides in agricultural operations. In Chapter 7 we described how developments in the environmental regulation of farmers - in particular the manure legislation since 1987 (regulatory context) - as well as increasing groundwater pollution — in particular an expected rise of nitrate levels (problem context) — provoked dynamics in the network context and the way in which water suppliers and farmers regard each other. Despite the regulatory gap in the relationship between water suppliers and farmers, we want to know whether water suppliers do try to bridge this gap by encouraging the prevention of agricultural water pollution by other means. And if they do so, how successful are they? Or, to put it in other words, what is their control capacity?