The organisation of water services was thoroughly reshaped in Lithuania after the country regained her independence in 1990. The responsibility for water supply and sewerage transferred from the state to municipalities. In Finland municipalities are also responsible for water and wastewater services, but the state has never had any significant role. The practice of producing these services is quite different in the two countries. In Lithuania municipal companies operate water and wastewater systems with their own staff, while in Finland municipal utilities commonly outsource most of the work and the services on 1-3 year contracts, and perform only key operations with their own staff. This is one of the reasons why the number of people employed directly by Finnish water utilities is substantially lower than that of their Lithuanian counterparts.