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PEEL-HARVEY ICLEI WATER CAMPAIGN™ PROJECT
Water is recognised as a vital, yet increasingly scarce resource and also a major feature not only of our natural environment, in terms of our estuaries, rivers and wetlands but also of our culture and our economy. As such, the management of water related issues is fundamentally important to our community as a whole. Many Local Governments now recognise that as large consumers of water they also have a responsibility to show leadership by providing for the needs of the community in a sustainable and efficient manner. The International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) is an association of Local Governments who believe in striving for sustainability. In response to requests from its members, ICLEI have developed a campaign that focuses on freshwater resource management and provides a framework for local government to deal with water consumption and quality related issues; or more specifically:
The framework for the ICLEI Water Campaign™ is based on that developed for the highly successful Cities for Climate Protection Program™, consisting of three modules, Corporate, Community and Catchment. Each module considers both water consumption and water quality issues through a series of five milestones as follows:
The Corporate Module of the campaign focuses on the Local Governments' own facilities and operations, while the Community module concentrates on the role of Local Government in educating and influencing water efficiency and quality issues in the wider community. The Catchment module involves the local governments of a catchment working together to achieve improved water resource management. The ICLEI Water Campaign(TM) is a voluntary capacity building program and participation requires significant human resources as well as the interest and commitment from the local governments involved. The Local Government Water Resource Project was develop with the aim of removing one of the most significant barrier to the local governments of the South West participating in the program; available officer time. The funding received has allowed the PHCC and other sub-regions to employ part-time Water Campaign Officers to work with each of the participating council to undertake the 'leg-work' involved in participating in the campaign. These officers are locally based and work with up to three councils facilitating their involvement and also very importantly these officers help to increase communication between the Councils themselves and the local NRM groups on water related (and other NRM) matters. The local governments still contribute significantly in regards to officer time from many different departments with the councils such as engineering, environment, parks and gardens and corporate services and the local governments themselves take on the responsibility for implementing the Local Actions Plans developed through Milestone Three of the campaign. The PHCC implementation of the Water Campaign began January 2003 with four Councils in the Peel Region, being the City of Mandurah, and the Shires of Boddington, Serpentine-Jarrahdale and Murray. The original funding for this project was provided by the Peel-Development Commission, the City of Mandurah, the Peel Centre for Water Excellence and the Serpentine-Jarrahdale Shire. With subsequent funding from the National Heritage Trust the PHCC project was expanded to include a total of nine Local Governments of the Peel-Harvey Catchment with the addition of the Shires of Cuballing, Harvey, Wandering, Waroona and the Town of Kwinana. In 2004 funding was received through the South West Catchment Council from the National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality to again continue the project and expand further into the Southwest Region in partnership with the Leschenault, Cape to Cape and GeoCatch sub-regions. The project has continued to be seen as a priority for the SWCC region with funding allocated from the South West Regional NRM Investment Plan 2005/06 and 2006/08. All local governments involved with the campaign have begun progressing through the Milestone framework of the campaign and implementing appropriate water conservation and water quality improvement initiatives within their municipalities.
Current Participating Local Governments:
Further information can be obtained by contacting:
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