Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1697804786880.pdf (Ireland)
Public Water Forum Submission to the Joint Committee on the Future Funding of Domestic Water Services in relation to Public Engagement and Transparency Background The issue of water has emerged as a highly contested one in Ireland in recent years.

There is a high level of agreement that much needs to be put right with regard to drinking water and waste water treatment.

What we seem to be unable to agree on is how to do it, and particularly, how we will pay for it.
Decades of under-investment in infrastructure, network maintenance and public awareness mean that we now face considerable challenges on these fronts in the immediate and long term future.

Climate change, environmental pressures and increasingly stringent EU regulations further exacerbate the investment challenge such that more is necessary just to stand still.

Additionally, the economic development agenda is predicated on a future safe, secure and abundant water supply.
Ireland’s food, tourism, farming and ICT industrial sectors are each based on such an assumption - as is the expectation of continued population growth into the future.

A ready supply of fresh water is indeed a key component of Ireland’s competitive advantage both in the development of indigenous economic activity and in attracting foreign direct investment.
For all of these reasons it is of great importance that a national strategy capable of addressing each and all of these challenges is developed and agreed.

A broadly based consensus concerning the management and development of such a key national asset is a fundamental requirement of practically every other national development objective.
While agreement on the financing of the water infrastructure may not be a sufficient condition for the realisation of all other national development goals, it is certainly a necessary condition for their realisation.
Role and Structure of the Public Water Forum The Public Water Forum, established under the Water Services Act (2014), aims to provide a site and a process whereby different approaches and positions concerning the management and development of the water resource in Ireland can be explored and interrogated.
As an independent, representative body, consisting both of domestic and commercial consumers, the Forum aims to increase public awareness and vigilance concerning such a scarce, necessary and vulnerable resource; to explore innovative approaches to meeting the diverse and sometimes competing demands of water conservation and supply; to draw on international experience in dealing with some of the challenges that Ireland must now address and to ensure that the citizen voice is heard both in Irish Water and the Commission for Energy Regulation.
The Forum consists of 32 members and a Chair.

Secretarial support is provided by the CER.

Of the 32 members, there are 12 sectoral representatives.
These representatives are from organisations that represent the interests of:  The Consumer  Those providing or occupying social housing  Those owning or occupying private rented housing  The Community and Voluntary Pillar  Those with a disability  The environment   Agriculture and rural affairs  Tourism and recreation  The education sector  The trade union movement  The group water sector Industry The 20 domestic members were selected after a national recruitment campaign on the following criteria:  At least two people from each age category  At least five men and at least five women  At least three people from each location category  At least five people from an urban location and five from a rural location  At least five registered Irish Water consumers and at least five unregistered consumers The Forum has now met on eight occasions.
It has issued formal responses on each of the following since its establishment:  Expert Water Commission Report – December 2016  CER Consultation on Irish Water performance assessment – August 2016  Irish Water Emerging Investment Plan – February 2016 Priorities of the Public Water Forum In addition to responding to consultation requests from bodies such as the Joint Oireachtas Committee or the CER, the forum also has five standing working groups as follows:  Ownership and Governance  Education and Public Engagement  Health  Conservation and Innovation  Affordability and Pricing While the Forum has identified each of these as priorities in the evolution of a coherent national strategy around the water infrastructure, it recognises that further progress is required in terms of its own profile, its wider engagement with the public and its direct impact on key decision makers.
The Forum currently has no full-time staff and technical support if required can be secured only through the slow and complex public procurement processes.

It is usually, therefore, difficult to secure the requisite technical support within the timescale of requests for submissions from various stakeholders.

Recognising the above the Forum has now sought the appointment of two full-time staff; a Chief Executive and an Education/Public engagement Specialist.
It is envisioned that these appointments will be in place in the coming months and that they will provide a further impetus to the work and profile of the Forum as it evolves.

Philosophically, the Forum has adopted a number of key positions with regard to water and to the role of public engagement on this issue.
In particular, it believes that water, as a basic need, is a citizen entitlement where access should not be determined or circumscribed by ability to pay or that one’s water usage should in any way increase the risk or exacerbate the impact of poverty.

The approach to the consumer as citizen rather than as customer sets the parameters for the engagement agenda.

From the former perspective, public engagement is viewed as key institutional mechanism in democratic discourse and decision making.
The Forum approaches its role from this perspective and considers that it has a significant potential for citizen education and information particularly on those aspects of water prioritised by the Forum working groups.

It recognises also, that its future evolution will need to take cognisance of other vehicles for public and community consultation in the field already.
This may include, for example, the National Water Services Committee or the Local Authority Waters and Communities Office (LAWCO) and the consultation structures envisaged under the River Basin Catchment Protection Plans.

With regard to experiences of public consultation elsewhere the Forum has noted in particular the work of the Scottish Water Forum.
It notes however that the Scottish example has emerged in a political context where the issue of water charging as a principle is uncontested and its general policy framework is agreed.
Irish Water’s Engagement with the Public The Forum is convinced of the need for a single national water authority and notes the progress that Irish Water has made in a number of areas such as the reduction of boiled water notices, dealing with leakage and in capturing the scale of the ongoing major investment program which will be required in the immediate and long term future.

It recognises that Irish Water emerged into a highly contested context and that public trust in the organisation has been weak.
In a general sense, it might be tentatively suggested that Irish Water modelled itself as a commodity provider while the public saw it as a service provider.

Given this background and context it may be necessary, in the short term at any rate, that Irish Water engage more with intermediary bodies - such as in the world of research, NGOs in the environmental sector, civic society, education (schools and higher education institutions) - than directly with consumers.
Such an approach might be particularly relevant with a regard to water conservation.

The Forum recognises the importance of metering in the context of water conservation.

Individual household metering, together with the metering of all business and non-domestic users provides a measurement vehicle which is the sine qua nom of effective management of water.

District metering also provides such a mechanism but not at the household level.
While measurement is the first condition of conservation, other innovations also suggest themselves.

The retro fitting of houses - and business premises – for water saving devices can yield positive conservation outcomes and contribute to public education and engagement.

Community initiatives in areas such as source protection, rain water harvesting, innovations in waste water treatment particularly in rural villages and in one off housing are all areas of potential.
Similarly with regards to research, Irish Water, the EPA and the Higher Education Institutions could together drive a significant national research agenda on all aspects of water.

The continued decline in water quality of Ireland’s rivers, lakes and ground water is a matter which impacts on all aspects of Irish life - public health, tourism, the food industry and wildlife.
The depletion of the ecosystem in a climate changing world merits a public policy priority requiring substantial research and policy development in multiple discrete but related areas.

The Forum therefore takes the view that while the issue of domestic water charges is a matter of intense public interest, it is just one aspect of a much wider debate on water which the whole society now needs to embark upon.
With adequate research and technical support and with the active engagement of the many stakeholders in this area a reconfigured Forum could provide the vehicle to do this.