Water charges collected cannot be easily used because of a rather cumbersome and lengthy bureaucracy in the tendering procedures of public agencies. Users, who pay charges as a contribution to improve basin conditions, do not always see the benefits of such charges in improving overall water outcomes in the basin, which may generate a disincentive to pay water charges in the future or accept increases. The approach adopted by Ceara, in which water is charged by a company, not as a natural public resource but rather as a service provided to the user based on infrastructure management, may be a way of circumventing the deadlock, although very much tailored for Ceara conditions and a little artificial under different circumstances (Box 2.7). If there is a difference between the capacity needed to shoulder water responsibilities and the local authority’s organisational, technical, procedural, networking and infrastructure capacity, consequences for the implementation of national water policies are unavoidable.