October 2009
Local governments are being approached to participate in a number of water management initiatives at the moment namely: Below is an explanation of how these programs relate to the Water Campaign™.
The Water Campaign™ aims to facilitate and support long term change in local government. We do this by providing a framework to cover all water management issues that you may want to be involved in and then supporting local governments through that step by step.
ICLEI Oceania does not provide detailed technical advice on irrigation, stormwater technologies, urban planning etc. Other organisations such as the Department of Water and the Water Corporation are better placed to do this and we would usually direct a local government to them if they needed specialised help in a particular area.
The Water Conservation Plans and the Better Urban Water Management Planning workshops are two programs which provide detailed advice on two particularly important and specialised parts of sustainable water management. The Water Conservation Plans provide a platform to improve water use for public open space and the Better Urban Water Management Planning workshops provide advice on integrating sustainable water management in to your land use planning processes.
As part of the Water Conservation Plans most Councils have by now been asked to collect and analyse your local government’s self supply water consumption data (usually groundwater and surface water licences). This data is in nearly exactly the same format as the Water Campaign™ Milestone 1 Inventory.
To integrate this data into your Milestone 1 Inventory you just need to email your Water Conservation Plan data to your Water Campaign State Manager and they will upload the data into your inventory for you. Your self supply water data can then be analysed alongside your scheme water data.
You will also create a plan to improve your irrigation practices. At Milestone 3 you can use that plan to fulfill the Water Campaign™ requirements for the groundwater and/or surface water sections of your Local Action Plan.
As part of your BUWM workshop you will learn about the State Planning Policy 2.9 and the tools that Department of Water provides to help you with implementing this. This fits under Milestone 3 Community Water Quality.
You will also hear about selecting appropriate technologies for quantity and quality management and the maintenance and monitoring of stormwater systems. This could lead to actions under either Corporate (if it relates to retrofitting an existing drainage asset under your control) or Community modules (if it is about working with a developer to implement a specific stormwater technology in a new development).
Throughout the BUWM workshop it will be important that you collect ideas for ongoing projects, policies, support mechanisms etc that can be captured and put into your Milestone 3 Local Action Plan.
As you then work through to Milestone 4 and 5 the Water Campaign™ will prompt you to implement, report and track the benefits resulting from these actions.
Please note: The Department of Water is delivering both of these programs to selected councils and will contact councils they would like to involve directly.
The Waterwise Council Program takes a different approach. The Water Corporation and the Department of Water wanted to allow local governments to be endorsed as Waterwise and therefore be eligible to use the Waterwise logo in a similar way to a Waterwise Plumber or a Waterwise School.
Given that many councils were already working on the Water Campaign™ and their Water Conservation Plans it was agreed that local governments who have prepared a Water Conservation Plan and who have achieved Milestone 3 in the Water Campaign™ could be endorsed as Waterwise provided they also met selected other criteria as well.
These include adherence to the government’s statewide permanent water efficiency measures where required, no prosecutions for breaching any abstraction limit set by the Department of Water, and attending a Waterwise Councils training workshop.
The Waterwise Councils training workshops aim to increase the skills of your staff in indoor water auditing (this is very useful after you have completed your Milestone 1 inventory and identified your high consuming sites) and water efficient gardening practices. These workshops are run regularly by the Water Corporation. Email water.efficiency@watercorporation.com.au to find out when the next training in your area is due to be held.
For more information on the Waterwise Council criteria and to find out how to get involved see the Department of Water and the Water Corporation website. Participation in the Waterwise Councils Program is open to all local governments across Western Australia.
All of these programs complement and enhance the work you are doing through the Water Campaign.
All local governments are at different stages in each of these processes and therefore if you would like specific advice on how to integrate the results of each of these programs please contact your Water Campaign State Manager at the ICLEI Oceania Western Australian office.
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