This article examines experiences with the adoption and implementation of two Indonesian water supply public–private partnerships (PPPs). It focuses on how various tiers of governments can share competencies to develop a more successful national PPP programme. The analysis is based on semi-structured interviews and reference to primary documents. We find that effective sharing of roles between governmental tiers contributes to the success of both projects in terms of bankability and marketability. However, coordination problems between government tiers contributes to significant delays in project implementation. This delay is costly given the public health issues associated with lack of access to clean drinking water.