Silo approaches in water policy result in incoherence between subnational policy needs and national policy initiatives and reduce the possibility of success for implementation of cross-sectoral policy at the sub-national level. If individual ministries or public agencies operate independently, rather than undertaking cross-sectoral initiatives, the opportunity for “whole government” approaches is minimised. At the same time, possibilities for maximising efficiency and effectiveness in cross-sectoral public services may be lost, and sub-national development adversely impacted.