COMMUNITY
Today, the " rules of the gam e" as they were 30 years ago no longer apply - the communi ty expects and dema nds to be consulted on all regional m atters and the develo pment of wa ter reso urces is no exceptio n.
CONSULTATION
Barwon Water's perform ance to date, was held Block 1: WRDP Overview ea rly in November 2000 . Thirty invited stakeholders Fact Sheet No. 1 "Water Resou rces - Plann ing for Tomorrow " from loca l governmen t, Fact Sheet No. 2 "Th e Value of Wate r" s t a t e gove rnm en t , Block 2: Sources of Supply community gro ups, wa ter Fact Sheet No. 3 " Harvesting Surface Water " authorities and businesses Water Resources Planning Fact Sheet No. 4 "Groundwater - the Invisible Resource " attended the conference. Fact Sheet No . 5 "Sharing Water Resources" Water reso urces planning is T hese focus gro ups and Block 3: Supply Alternatives necessarily broad and compreconfefe nce provided a ve ry hensive . It is no longer simply a Fact Sheet No. 6 " Using Rec laimed Water" u sef ul s n a p s h ot of tec hni cal problem with technical Fact Sheet No. 7 "Tak ing Salt out of Seawater" communi ty attitudes and solutions . Many complex issues Fact Sheet No. 8 " Recycli ng Stormwater" helped to guide the later mu st b e r esol ve d , in cl udin g Block 4 : Conservation aspects of the consultation environmental , economic, heritage program and the commuFact Sheet No. 9 "Conserving Water arou nd the Home " and social issues, and so develnications program. Fact Sheet No. 10 " Managing an Unreliable Re sou rce" opment of water resources can take During this time a stakeBlock 5: Environment many years of planning and consulholder list was compiled Fact Sheet No. 11 "The Environment and Water Qual ity" tatio n. and pho n e, email an d Fact Sheet No. 12 "Water Resou rces and Climate Change" From th e co mmunit y's Internet access mechanisms perspective it is also complex as it Fact Sheet No. 13 "Water fo r the En vironment - a Bal ancing Act " we re implem ented. ca n m ea n different things to A m aj or compo nent of different people. To the wa ter th e co mmuni cat ion s engineer it is about dams, reseraspec ts. T he Barwo n Water Boa rd stra t egy was t h e di stributi on of voirs, gro undwater, major pipelines, considered it essential that the plan Conmrnnity Infonnation Bulletins, some desalina tion, wa ter treatment and wa ter expressed communi ty views and was of which included qualitative surveys . reuse . To the conservationist it is about w idely accepted and owned by the These bulletins provided backgro und ecological sustainability, m aintaining community. informat ion, contact details, invitations habitats and protecting heritage and the Where the technical work was largely to becom e involvea in the process, and environment. To the government it is re-visiting earlier inves tigatio ns, undersurveys on communi ty attitudes . A about ownership of wate r, wate r rights, taken over the last 20-30 years, and "Summer Special " was distributed to wa ter markets and wa ter legislatio n. To introducing new possibilities arising tourist locations during the holiday the economist it is abo ut economic from advances in technology, th e season, also with a survey, to inform efficiency, cost recovery, population consultation program was to explore visitors to the region and ga uge their growth and the cost of wate r. n ew terr i to ry - engaging th e attitu des to water reso urces issues. To the community as a w hole it is communi ty ! This was to involve the all of these! It is about development and T he first survey (see App endix) community in the process, to determine ovenvhelmingly chose these three issues managem ent of a limited reso urce for the attitudes, to seek comment and to listen, benefit of all. as most imp ortant to them: no t simply tell the community w hat was • Educating people to use less water. happening (or w hat had happened). Water Resources Development • Protecting rivers, streams and fores ts Plan Communications and of the Otway R anges . Consultation Strategy In Au gust 2000 Barwon Wa ter • M aking more use of reclaimed wate r. comm enced prepara tion of a Water T he first stage was to assess current T h e survey respondents, the foc us R esources D evelopment Plan to identify valu es and attitudes regarding water gro ups and search conference preferred ·ac tions that might be required over the resources. Attitudes of the "general a future wa ter management scenario next 20 years and beyond to provide for public", not those w ith a particular more freq uent restric tions, involving all existing and new customers. The plan interest in water resources. This involved greater use of reclaimed wa ter and no was required to meet community expectwo focus gro ups , w hich m ainly new dams or gro undwater development tations and to achieve community addressed res trictions and drought in the next 20 years. People were also understanding of the issues and, critically, security issues that were very topical at k een to see demand managem ent ownership of the solutions. Previous the time. T hey were held in October practices introduced and substituting as development plans had been largely 2000 and included 15 people at each. much " new" wate r as possible by technical solutions to m eet water supply Additio nal foc us groups were h eld reclaimed water, domestic grey wa ter needs. with Barwon Water's Environmental and tank wa ter. Consultants GHD Pty Ltd were Consultative Committee and C ustomer Perhaps the mos t interesting findin g appointed to assist w ith the technical Co nsultative Committee to ga uge was the public attitude t© wa ter res tricaspects. Context Pty. Ltd. was appointed cmTent attitudes from environmental and tion s . Bar wo n Water ex p ec t e d to assist with community consultation, customer representative gro ups. resentment afte r nearly 4 yea rs of to ensure that the community was restrictions, but people largely fe lt that A search conference to explore the informed on the development of the restrictions we re justified, did not cause attitudes of key stakeholders on the "big" plan, had opportunities to contribute to too mu ch hardship and were not the issues of wa ter resource managem ent in the pro cess and was able to participate result of poor managem ent by Barwon in informed discussion on the technical the region, and how they viewed 32
WATER JUNE 2002
Figure 1. Fact Sheets