Water is among the most basic necessities for all life on earth. Without it, few systems can survive.
The fact that our global water demand is projected to exceed the sustainable supply by 40 percent as early as 2030 means that water stewardship initiatives must be a top priority if we are to have enough water to sustain our growing population.
Instilling a sense of ownership in this issue in our local communities is an essential part of getting everyone on board with the idea of making more sustainable choices. Water stewardship has the power to help us successfully navigate the dwindling water supplies that will come to define the natural environment of the future.
One of the most effective ways to drive this ownership home is to get information into the hands of our youngest residents. Few entities are better situated in making that happen than the water utilities, governmental agencies, and regional water districts.
What is Water Stewardship?
A steward, by definition, is someone who is responsible for managing or overseeing something on behalf of others. Water stewardship refers to the general idea that everyone has a role to play in the management of water as a vital resource.
This does not mean that everyone needs to be directly involved in the bureaucracy of local or national water management, but it does mean that everyone can adopt sustainable water practices to limit the pressure on the water supply and make it an available resource into the future.
Water stewardship means conserving available fresh water, reusing it where possible, and protecting fresh water supplies from contamination and pollution. There are small steps that can be taken to make this happen, but without education old habits persist and it is easy to lose sight of its importance.To make these behaviors automatic, it is important to develop a new set of sustainable habits that can be practiced indefinitely.
These habits are most easily and successfully formed at a young age, which is why teaching water sustainability to the youngest among us is so vitally important to meeting water usage goals both now and in the future.
Read More: Water Wise – Ways to Save Water
Water Stewardship Starts with Education
It has become widely accepted that children’s minds are more malleable than the minds of adults, which helps them more readily absorb information. This fact represents some great reasons to invest in school-based water conservation programs that target the youngest learners.
Early Education Ensures Awareness and Long-Term Habit Adoption
Reaching learners early on is highly beneficial due to a concept known as neuroplasticity. According to the National Institute of Health, “greater plasticity in younger learners means experience holds more weight, has more power to reorganize, and is also more vulnerable to being overwritten on the basis of subsequent experience.”
Getting young people involved in student water programs and water conservation education can help develop lifelong habits that have the power to tip the scales in favor of sustainable water. The more students practice these habits, the more previous habits are overwritten to solidify these new, beneficial habits.
Students Act as Ambassadors of Water Conservation in their Families and Communities
Children often act as ambassadors with significant influence over all kinds of good habits in their homes, and especially habits like water conservation, recycling, healthy eating, and sustainable living. This is due to a combination of students teaching the new ideas like water-saving tips for students they are learning about to the rest of the family, as well as their ability to easily adapt to new ideas and behaviors.
If young people can get their households on board with water stewardship initiatives, it will help communities become well-situated to meet and even exceed water usage reduction goals now and for years to come.
The Role of Utilities and Water Departments in Promoting Water Stewardship
Few institutions are better equipped to reach the masses than local investor-owned utilities, municipalities, city and state agencies, and regional water districts. To promote the widespread adoption of successful water management strategies, these entities must be part of the equation. They have the statistics and the resources to drive meaningful change. One powerful way to get the ball rolling is through sponsoring educational outreach programs.
Benefits of Program Sponsorship for Utilities and Water Departments
When communities have the support of water utilities, conservation efforts can be amplified in ways that are hard to match. Investing in the future of water through sponsoring local water stewardship programs is essential for many reasons. Some benefits will impact the local community for decades to come, and others benefit the local utilities’ ability to continually deliver a clean product while maintaining a profitable, job-creating presence in the community.
Builds Trust and Goodwill within the Community
Sponsoring any kind of community improvement initiative builds a certain level of trust and goodwill between that community and the entity sponsoring it. Engaging in positive public relations campaigns like these can show that these entities care about the future of the community, and that they are willing to do something to help ensure its sustainability.
Promotes Compliance with Conservation Initiatives
Educating the public on issues like drought, climate change, and the environmental impact of local water consumption often leads to increased compliance with conservation efforts and environmental water programs. This takes much of the burden of meeting goals and metrics off the shoulders of utilities and water departments and encourages residents to play their parts.
Encourages Community-Wide Participation in Water Protection Efforts
Educational outreach programs that focus on small, actionable steps to improve sustainability can greatly influence the behaviors of the entire community. Engaging students in collaborative efforts that promote teamwork and social interaction has the power to affect widespread change. For these efforts to be most effective, it is important that the information is tailored to the concerns of the local populace. Sponsoring geo-specific water education programs is an effective way to localize the lesson.
Read More: How Can We Make Water More Sustainable?
Examples of Geo-Specific Water Education Programs
Not everyone gets their water in the same way. Every community water story is a little different, and connecting with a diverse group of learners from different backgrounds requires tapping into the topics that matter most to each individual. This is where geo-specific water education programs come into play. Here are a few examples of how engaging communities on water issues pertinent to them can help.
Urban Communities
Urban communities feature a great deal of steel, concrete, and asphalt. As such, much of the stormwater that falls on these communities gets routed down storm sewers and never makes it into local aquifers, meaning these communities can miss out on a vital source of freshwater. Educating the people who live there on stormwater management and teaching about water treatment and the impact of pollutants on waterways can have a big impact on their understanding of water stewardship.
Rural Communities
People in rural communities, however, might be more interested in learning about how agricultural runoff and waste water from fracking operations affect well water safety and the impacts on local aquifer protection efforts. These examples have a larger impact on their local water supplies, and provide important information on protecting local water resources from pollutants.
Coastal Areas
Coastal areas face an entirely different set of community water challenges. Saltwater intrusion, hurricanes, rising sea levels, and ocean pollution all have an effect on the availability of freshwater for communities in coastal regions. Educating coastal residents on all of these scenarios provides them with the information they need to make more thoughtful and sustainable water usage choices.
Partnering with NTC to Educate Communities
It is not always easy to make reliable, geographically relevant information on water stewardship accessible to the wider community. An NTC partnership specializing in water education outreach can help bring the expertise of local water utilities, districts, and municipalities into the broader community in a cost-effective, manageable, and measurable way. Sponsoring a program in your community is an investment in the future.
NTC has extensive experience in water stewardship programming with creative engagement strategies and targeted outreach methods that bring your water story into your community and help jumpstart sustainable water-wise behaviors. Contact us today to get started.