Surface water quality monitoring and protection in the former USSR and now in the Russian Federation has, historically, had a prominent position in the hierarchy of science, legal framework and institutional arrangements. Regrettably, the difference between intentions and effective programmes has always been large and, since the collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1991, has become a formidable barrier to developing effective solutions to water quality management in the Russian Federation. In recognition of this problem, and as part of the World Bank’s Environmental Management Project with the Russian Government, the North Caucasus Sub- Component has had a project focus on the development and demonstration of effective surface water quality monitoring in the Lower Don region. This programme has had three primary objectives -- efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability. Inevitably the outcome has been, to a significant degree, the result of a series of compromises among political, professional, and institutional interests. This paper documents its successes, reasons for its failures, and provides a “blueprint” for future activities in the modernisation of surface water quality monitoring for the Lower Don region and, by analogy, in the Russian Federation. The barriers to progress include lack of a clear policy framework, overlapping and, in some cases, inappropriate institutional arrangements, as well as legal and technical issues. Some of these are in the process of being resolved. The programme, as a whole, provides lessons in steps towards effective national water quality management for other countries with transitional economies and, to some degree, in developing countries.