The state and potential of water inclusion in Slovenia was presented by prof. Andrej Lukšič PhD, from Faculty of Social Sciences of University of Ljubljana.
Water is crucial to all of us; all sectors of the economy are related or dependent to water. We study it from many angles, strive to protect it but yet, pollution and negligent management is still overly present. It is therefore important to talk about it and strive for inclusive water decision-making in Slovenia.
How can we shape inclusive and optimal legislative protection of this resource? The answer is in bringing different target groups and experts together, to learn from each other and develop and benefit from an integrative and holistic approach. In Slovenia, this process is not formalised and much less frequent. No formal dialogue exists and current decision-making is left to the experts within national authorities. The public inclusion is enabled only with publishing of the legislation proposal on the governmental official page with a call for proposals, which are mainly not considered.
A complete communication platform would not only provide interdisciplinary understanding of water, but also envisage the surveillance and control of this life-enabling natural resource. It should encompass a representative of future generations and consult the decision-makers prior to every legislative amendment.
There are various forms of democracy available to support stakeholder and user involvement and ideally such process would be open and integrative to civil society organisations, experts of different domains and communicate this voice to politics and parliament.
The goal is the drafting and adopting water legislation that represents the citizens of today and tomorrow. And is uniformly valid for all people alike.
The webinar was encouraged by the forthcoming national referendum on Water act amendment on July 11, 2021.