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Bonn Charter Principles Series No. 6 The Impacts of Stakeholder Involvement on Drinking Water Safety

Bonn Charter Principles Series No. 6
The Impacts of Stakeholder Involvement on Drinking Water Safety Brian Manwaring (Management consultant, CH2M HILL)
Principle 6. An integrated water management approach requires close cooperation and partnership between all stakeholders includinggovernments, independent regulatory authorities, water suppliers, local public officials, health agencies, environmental agencies, land users, contractors, plumbers and manufacturers of relevant materials and products, and consumers themselves.

Introduction
The Bonn Charter for Safe Drinking Water emphasizes transparency and the cooperation among all stakeholders along the entire water supply chain inthe development and maintenance of safe water supply systems. Stakeholder cooperation includes aspects of open and honest communication as well as the definition of clear roles and responsibilities as described in previous principles. On a larger scale, stakeholder co-operation consists of the inclusion of key stakeholders in the planning and management of water resources. An increasing emphasis onstakeholder involvement in water resource issues has been observed nd throughout the world in recent years. For example, the 2 UN World Water Development Report (2006) highlights the benefits of an integrated and holistic approach to water resources management where stakeholders have input throughout the planning and management process. rd Similarly, the World Health Organization’s 3 Edition ofthe Guidelines on Drinking-water Quality (2004) states the importance of engaging the “many different types of stakeholders” to ensure water safety. The inclusion of stakeholders in an integrated approach to water resources management and drinking water safety presents numerous challenges. One of the major challenges is identifying and implementing a stakeholder solution that meets the needs ofdisparate stakeholders in unique situations. This issue of the Bonn Principle Series will look into the context-sensitive nature of stakeholder involvement approaches to integrated water management systems.

An Integrated Approach
The Bonn Charter supports an integrated system of procedures, processes and tools that collectively prevent or reduce the contamination of drinking water from source totap. This approach requires the cooperation of a wide array of stakeholders representing a variety of fields, such as regulatory authorities, water suppliers, land users, contractors, health and environmental agencies, and the public as well as numerous others. Governments are often engaged in water resources issues at multiple levels, whether directly or indirectly. For example, in Canada, thelegislative responsibility for providing safe drinking water to the public generally falls under provincial or territorial jurisdiction. However all levels of government have policies and agreements in place which affect the quality of drinking water including water quality monitoring, inspections, operator certification, and land-use agreements in watersheds. Other countries have other governancesystems which generate different sets of stakeholders. The Bonn Charter emphasizes stakeholder cooperation throughout the whole water cycle, including the management of source water and water/land interactions. In protecting source water, cooperation may need to occur at an international or trans-boundary level, including multiple governments as well as NGOs and other international agencies. In thecase of the Danube River Basin, the water is shared among more states than any other basin in the world, and its waters are used for several purposes, including drinking water supply, agriculture, industry and mining, navigation, recreation and power generation. Water quality in

August 2007

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Bonn Charter Principles Series No. 6 The Impacts of Stakeholder Involvement on Drinking Water...