Good Governance in Restructuring Water Supply
A Handbook
Karen Bakker
July 07, 2003
- English
A sustainable water supply is a cornerstone of sustainable communities. After years of relative neglect, Canadian communities and governments are beginning to focus on the challenges of sustainable water supply. Author, Karen Bakker notes that improving water supply management often requires reforms in governance and changes to utility structure. Relatively little information is available for non-specialists on this topic. This handbook attempts to fill that gap, focusing on good governance in the context of restructuring water supply services, i.e., changes to "soft" management systems, or to the organizational and administrative aspects of management systems.
Chapter 1 outlines the sustainable water supply management challenge, defines restructuring, and gives examples of why and how municipal governments would want to engage in restructuring. The remainder of the handbook provides information intended to assist municipal governments and communities that are considering restructuring their water supply systems. The topics covered include types of business models, good governance principles and examples of restructuring.
The handbook does not provide detailed facts and figures on water supply issues in each province, nor does it discuss technical issues such as asset management. The focus is on
good governance in restructuring by municipal government, not on provincial and federal orders of government. Given the variation in legislative frameworks between provinces,
no "one-size-fits all" model can be proposed for water supply across Canada. Rather, the information is intended to support community efforts to acknowledge and improve governance of water supply as a critical factor in sustainable water supply management.