Last year, Campbelltown City Council in South Australia ran the ‘Creative Ways to Save Water’ competition to promote water saving initiatives in the community. Council encouraged residents to be as creative as they could, sending in entries on simple things they do at home to save water.
Council’s Environmental Policy Officer, Kaarina Sarac, said it was a fun way to engage with the community.
“Although it was called a competition, we tried to remove the competitiveness from the initiative as much as possible,” she said. “There are hundreds of ways to save water, but people with limited finances are obviously not able to implement some of the solutions available to people who are financially better off. Therefore we placed more emphasis on people being creative in their entries, rather than how much money they spent. Rather than choosing a winning entry, we placed all the submissions into a draw to win a $250 Westfield voucher. The winner was also invited to attend future Council meetings and share ideas on water saving initiatives.”
Kaarina Sarac said all entries were posted on Council’s website so the entire community had access to the ideas raised. Solutions ranged from simple – such as placing a brick in toilet receptacles to reduce the water used for each flush and using swimming pools as additional water storage during winter – to more complex solutions, such as subsoil irrigation and installation of bore water wells.
Campbelltown Councillor, Helen Nichols, came up with the idea for the project. She said bringing about change in community behaviour often has a better chance when rewards are offered.
“There are a lot of small things we all can do to save water, and I think Local Government is obliged to raise awareness of these,” she said. “Campbelltown has a very comprehensive website, which not only includes the competition entries, but staff submissions on water conservation.
“We will continue to look at this issue for both the community and Council and we are currently assessing further uses for stormwater.”
For further information contact Kaarina Sarac on (08) 8366 9257.
