The Australian Water Association (AWA), in common with many water organizations, has
made several forays into the field of informing the community better. The latest, funded
partially by the Natural Heritage Trust (an Australian national environment improvement
fund), is the "We All Use Water" suite of resources, including fact sheets, a training and
resource manual and supporting aids. By mid-2002, several training sessions had been held
for education and liaison staffers around Australia; the manual sold well but the take-up of
fact sheets was fairly slow.
This paper outlines the "We All Use Water" project and its implementation, as well as the
conundrum faced by AWA and water organizations generally, in directing educational efforts
intelligently and cost effectively. Some of the issues thrown into sharp relief by the desire to
inform the community will be analyzed and progress on resolving them are reported. These
include: identifying credible sources of information (research suggests that local environment
groups enjoy the highest credibility); the information mismatch that small utilities face (some
educated consumers being "experts" on narrow issues); and, a general lack of water industry
knowledge about learning preferences. Includes figure.
| Edition : | Vol. - No. |
| File Size : | 1
file
, 1.1 MB |
| Note : | This product is unavailable in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus |
| Number of Pages : | 5 |
| Published : | 06/15/2003 |
