**1. Introduction**

318 Current Issues of Water Management

Ministry of Water and Irrigation and USAID (2006), "Amman Water Management/

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This chapter examines the different ways megacities manage water by comparing how Los Angeles and New York - two U.S. metropolises that divert water from distant sources - have worked with their surrounding regions to acquire, allocate, and manage public supplies. Early in their histories these cities, in their quest to acquire water, adopted a hegemonic relationship with their neighbors. In effect, they sought to control regional sources that could satisfy current as well as projected water needs (Hundley, 2001; New York City, 2011; Koeppel, 2000; 2001). Over time, and under external pressure, both cities embraced collaboration with adjacent communities to address water supply and quality issues whose scope and impact required regional accommodation and sharing of authority. What they have done to achieve accommodation in light of water stress, and how they have done it, may afford lessons for megacities across the globe that face comparable challenges.

New York and Los Angeles diverged in their motives for and methods of collaboration, in part because their water challenges differ. New York's central challenge currently revolves around managing water quality and the safety of its drinking water. Meeting this challenge is virtually impossible without cooperation with non-governmental actors in other political jurisdictions from whence its water supply comes - and who would be severely burdened financially if the city had to build a large regional water filtration plant. For Los Angeles, by contrast, water (and air) quality issues in the Owens Valley - the source, since 1913, of onethird of the city's water - have driven efforts to partner with valley stakeholders to negotiate gradual reductions in flow and restoration of the watershed. While both cities were initially concerned with water supply, however, over time they both became increasingly worried over water quality and the need for integrated approaches to managing supply and quality.
