A new environmental initiative known as Living Waters – Living Communities was launched last year in Warringah. The project, a first of its kind to be run in Sydney, is a partnership between Warringah Council and Northern beaches environment group, Oz GREEN, and is assisted by the NSW Government through its Stormwater Trust.
The project aims to build an ecologically and socially sustainable local community through the creation and ongoing support of resident based ‘eco-teams’.
Living Waters – Living Communities began with the recruitment of Robyn Tucker as the project officer. Robyn came to the project with a strong background in running community based environmental education programs. One of the prime areas of practical focus for the Living Waters – Living Communities project was to raise awareness about stormwater pollution and the need to prevent pollution at source by understanding what impacts their daily actions can have on this issue.
To begin the project, 20 volunteer eco-team leaders were appointed, who were trained on environmental issues with a focus on sustainability. Twelve eco-teams were then developed, comprising people in the local community.
Robyn Tucker said that eco-team members were asked to draw up environmental maps of their homes, to decipher the environmental impacts their households had on the environment.
“The individual household maps served as an excellent source for eco-team members to discuss ways in which they could make their homes more environmentally friendly, such as sweeping leaves out of gutters and replacing light globes with environmentally friendly ones,” she said. “After these smaller issues were tackled, some group members moved their way up to larger environmental projects such as developing their own compost sites, producing their own worm farms or working on local parks to make them more community friendly.”
Robyn Tucker said that the project title Living Waters – Living Communities is appropriately named.
“The great thing about this project is its ability to bring the community together to discuss environmental issues that are affecting the place in which we live,” she said. “The project also serves as a unique opportunity for eco minded individuals to pool their collective ideas and thoughts on the environment, in turn creating a resource unit for the entire community.
“Living Waters – Living Communities helps members realise their environmental efforts are not wasted and that there are many more people out there who are trying to make a difference.”
On 28 June 2001, 50 people involved in the project will receive certificates to recognise their efforts. Other presentations will be considered later in the year.
For further information contact Robyn Tucker, telephone (02) 9984 8917.
