AWWA ACE58226

The Australian Water Association (AWA), in common with many water organizations, has made several forays into the field of informing the community better. The latest, funded partially by the Natural Heritage Trust (an Australian national environment improvement fund), is the "We All Use Water" suite of resources, including fact sheets, a training and resource manual and supporting aids. By mid-2002, several training sessions had been held for education and liaison staffers around Australia; the manual sold well but the take-up of fact sheets was fairly slow. This paper outlines the "We All Use Water" project and its implementation, as well as the conundrum faced by AWA and water organizations generally, in directing educational efforts intelligently and cost effectively. Some of the issues thrown into sharp relief by the desire to inform the community will be analyzed and progress on resolving them are reported. These include: identifying credible sources of information (research suggests that local environment groups enjoy the highest credibility); the information mismatch that small utilities face (some educated consumers being "experts" on narrow issues); and, a general lack of water industry knowledge about learning preferences. Includes figure.