countries USD 15-34 per capita per year of additional finance would be needed if the present infrastructure is to be properly maintained and renewed (OECD, 2005b). The debates concerning the future of water services may in fact be reduced to the question of how, given the rising demands on state budgets, the funding problems are to be resolved and what bodies will be responsible for securing the necessary funding. The problems of maintaining networks are bound up with the question of what future networks will look like (Schramm, 2004). The challenges that the current models of service provision - in particular, public provision - are facing may lead to the adoption of new forms of organisation, operation and ownership of water infrastructure. INFRASTRUCTURE TO 2030: TELECOM, LAND TRANSPORT, WATER AND ELECTRICITY - ISBN 92-64-02398-4 - © OECD 2006 5. THE IMPACTS OF CHANGE ON THE LONG-TERM FUTURE DEMAND FOR WATER SECTOR INFRASTRUCTURE United States The Constitution provides an overall framework for property rights, while state regulatory commissions oversee the operation of privately owned local utilities and local governments regulate public utilities. With the growth of cities between 1800 and 1900, water provision was dominated by the private owners. By 1900 over half of the concerns were in public ownership due to contractual problems between municipalities and companies, principally over water for fire- fighting. In the United States water and sanitation assets are devolved to local governments. Where local governments have been carved up into smaller political jurisdictions and individual water works are impractical, privately owned companies have emerged to provide regional services covering several local governments. There are approximately 54 000 community water systems, of which some 43% are publicly owned, 33% privately owned and 24% classified as ancillary systems that supply very small communities (Bakker, 2005). Together these systems provide 90% of US tap water; approximately 3 000 provide more than 