Use of water resources & poor communication
John Collins from Toowoomba has just left a comment about the Mayor of Toowoomba and their receycled water issue that clearly demonstrates how high feelings can run about issues when the communication process is poor. His side won, Toowoomba is still short of water and he is still ranting.
I have been at an environment industry conference this week and one of the topics was the importance of communicating clearly all the issues between industry, regulatory bodies including councils and the community. This comment all this time later, illustrates the point of good communication and use of common sense. Practices need to change when circumstances do and clear communication is vital or else common sense disappears.
Technorati Tags: water resources, poor communication, John Collins, Toowoomba, Mayor of Toowoomba, recycled water, ISO 14001
June 27th, 2007 at 11:49 pm
Toowoomba has plenty of water options - the outgoing mayor refused to look at them. Get a new council in there next year and you will see water solutions. It never made any sense to ask people to drink recycled water while pouring bore water onto the city’s parks and gardens. And where was her RO waste stream going to go. She proposed a project which wasn’t viable - plenty of people in Toowoomba would have considered her plan if it actually would have worked.
June 28th, 2007 at 12:16 am
I’d have to agree. I live in Dalby and we are going to be the showcase for water use in Australia. We have a properly planned project which involves using treated coal seam gas water for our town water supply and then the recycled water will be used on the town’s parks and gardens. We have both state and federal funding for this project. While Toowoomba got bogged down in their controversial project, we went ahead with our plans and will be a shining example to other towns and cities in Australia on water and recycled water use. Thank you.
June 28th, 2007 at 3:42 am
I do truly think that this is an example of poor communication early in the piece and continuing through the discussions. Without weighing in on either side, and certainly without supporting either side nor being rude about anyone, I feel strongly that when people become upset about a project and remain upset after it is resolved, this is a failure of communication.
We do need to try to develop the skills to allow all views to be heard clearly, considered and resolved without strong emotions being raised. That way we get the best outcomes where sometimes an even better solution can be found than the one that either party wanted initially.