Planning implications of water supply decisions

Provision of a safe drinking water supply should be an essential component of any plan that intends to guide the development of a community or region that aspires to achieving sustainable growth. Water supplies are critical to protect public health and environmental quality, and to efficiently plan for sustainable growth that will allow regions to compete successfully in the global economy. Water supply planning is an increasingly important topic because sprawling development degrades water supply sources and climate change models predict increased risks of drought and changed patterns of precipitation that threaten future public water supplies. If regions provide a poor water supply, they can undermine important regional goals and contribute to suburban sprawl, unsustainable growth, and a degraded natural environment. This paper focuses on three issues that are critical to water supply planning: (1) the role of public water supplies in promoting and controlling development; (2) protecting against unintended consequences of providing public water supply; and (3) protecting water supply sources. The paper first discusses these three issues and then uses a case study to emphasise their importance. Good planning can use the provision of public water supply infrastructure to achieve diverse goals; however, in many places water supply plans fail to address many critically important planning issues.