5 Our Community

We have used input from the community to develop Our Water Our Future 2050. We will seek further community feedback on the draft strategy once it has been endorsed by Council for public exhibition. This feedback will be used to inform the final strategy, which will then go to Council for adoption.

How we engaged with the community

From July 2022 to April 2023, we asked our community to consider the solutions we came up with to secure the future of our precious water resource. We heard from a wide variety of people across the MidCoast, including residents, visitors, students, business representatives and more.

Date Event Details

28 July 2022

11 November 2022

October 2022March 2023

December 2022February 2023

28 February 2023

17 March16 April 2023

April - June 2023

29 June - 2 August 2023

First Our Water Our Future Group community workshop

Youth Hackathon for water

Online engagement to better understand community values and sentiment

Children's illustration competition

Second Our Water Our Future Group workshop

Online engagement and community popups

Development of draft strategy based on community feedback

Public exhibition of draft strategy

23 August 2023 Present to Council for adoption

This is our focus group for the development of the strategy. It has members from various cross sections of our community, including MidCoast community members, our regulators and specialists.

Fifty senior high school students split into nine teams developed creative solutions to solve water security, effluent management and climate change issues

Values survey that asked: which of the following factors is most important to you when considering water and sewer services: social, economic, governance and environment?

Encouraging children to consider the importance of water and present their ideas in a creative format

Group provide feedback their priorities and concerns for the four different scenarios. The feedback received was integrated into the QBL assessment for identifying the preferred IWCM strategy.

Information on short-listed options and survey response questions on our website, supported by eight pop-up sessions across the MidCoast

What our community told us

Input from our community has helped us develop our long-term water plan. A summary of the results from the online community engagement is presented below.

Water is important because it hydrates, washes and is used by people and animals every day.

Bella, children’s illustration competition winner

Water is a resource we have very little of and we need to look after it.

Andrew, Our Water Our Future Community Group