Tracing invisible policy impacts on water demand
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Policies have impacts beyond their intended scope. Tracing the implications of ‘non-water’ policies for water demand can prevent them undermining strategies to reduce water demand and ensure that diverse policy agendas are resilient to water scarcity. This paper presents a framework for analysing policy impacts on water demand and interpreting the degree to which impacts are visible within policy objectives, implementation, and monitoring. The framework examines four policy arenas in England: housing and planning; energy and decarbonisation; health and social care; and the economy. Policy analysis, practitioner consultation, and social science perspectives identify three forms of negative impact: increased demand, altered timing and location of demand (contributing to water demand peaks), and unrealised potential to reduce water demand due to the scope or direction of policy. The analysis renders visible typically unseen impacts and identifies opportunities to reduce demand within proximate policy agendas.
