Winning Minds to Water Reuse ...

Presentation given last year by Linda MacPherson, CH2M Hill

Winning Minds to Water Reuse: The Road to NEWater, Linda MacPherson, CH2M Hill

This presentation will examine the remarkable marriage of advanced technical work with a carefully crafted public education and outreach strategy, culminating in the opening of the NEWater Visitor Centre in Singapore.

The NEWater Visitor Centre illustrates how technology and public understanding can be successfully aligned to build community understanding and support of water reuse technologies and their benefits. [A "guided" democracy helps too.]

Experiences in the United States and elsewhere had shown that public understanding of water reuse often fails due to the stigma associated with used wastewater.

Registrants will learn that reframing public understanding about water, the water cycle and technology through innovative communication strategies, visual images, and computer programs is a key to aiding public understanding for what is universally recognized as one of the most difficult public perception issues.

See - Presentation.

Water-speak for "let's spend large amounts of your ratepayers' money to see if we can convince you to do something that lots of people aren't sure about - and you get a nifty Visitors Centre too!"