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AWWA ACE58226
- An Informed Community - the Water Industry's Challenge
- Conference Proceeding by American Water Works Association, 06/15/2003
- Publisher: AWWA
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The Australian Water Association (AWA), in common with many water organizations, hasmade several forays into the field of informing the community better. The latest, fundedpartially by the Natural Heritage Trust (an Australian national environment improvementfund), is the "We All Use Water" suite of resources, including fact sheets, a training andresource manual and supporting aids. By mid-2002, several training sessions had been heldfor education and liaison staffers around Australia; the manual sold well but the take-up offact sheets was fairly slow.This paper outlines the "We All Use Water" project and its implementation, as well as theconundrum faced by AWA and water organizations generally, in directing educational effortsintelligently and cost effectively. Some of the issues thrown into sharp relief by the desire toinform the community will be analyzed and progress on resolving them are reported. Theseinclude: identifying credible sources of information (research suggests that local environmentgroups enjoy the highest credibility); the information mismatch that small utilities face (someeducated consumers being "experts" on narrow issues); and, a general lack of water industryknowledge about learning preferences. Includes figure.