Organization: Friends of the Earth Canada

Type: Policy

The author argues "policy-making by default"� is the first obstacle that water soft path advocates must surmount. Routine business-as-usual decisions, especially to construct large-scale water infrastructure, can dictate water management priorities for years to come, keeping soft path ideas on the margins. Without ever being actively rejected, a soft path approach could be sidelined indefinitely and paradoxically, in this case change is also more difficult because a soft path approach builds on, rather than rejects, current aspects of water management. The soft path incorporates the technological advances in safe water supply and sanitation that have dominated the model for delivering water services in this country for the last century. And the recent emphasis on demand management by some water utilities is also an essential part of a water soft path. As a result, the soft path approach may not appear to be dramatically different, making the attention and commitment needed for its implementation much harder to gain.

If there is to be progress on water soft path policies, it will require an understanding both of what can be done differently and why things need to change. Knowing who the actors are and how they and the institutions in which they function can shift direction is also important if water management is to move toward a soft path and its goal of sustainability.

Submitted by: WConnect Admin (June 09, 2009)

Last Reviewed by: WConnect Admin (June 09, 2009)