CASE STUDY: WATER WORKS ACROSS 2021-22
SNAPSHOT
Processes: 14 deliberative engagement processes + wider engagement + Regional Advisory Groups
MosaicLab’s role: Design, facilitation and reporting
Clients: Barwon Water, Coliban Water, Greater Western Water, Melbourne Water, South East Water and Yarra Valley Water
Timeframe: 2021 - 2023
Participants: So many participants! Overall, 402 across all water works panels and juries.
REMITS (THE CHALLENGES)
There has been such a focus on deep community engagement and community influence on decisions within the water industry that it is worth unpacking each of the processes a little more and to highlight the differences.
1. Barwon Water: Water For Our Future Panel x 3
Remit - With less rain and a hotter climate, it’s time to think differently about how we use water and where it comes from. How can we create a new water future that balances all our needs?
2. Coliban Water: 2023 – 28 Price Submission Panel
Remit - Our region is facing a critical point in its water supply and demand. Our built structures are aging, and our climate is getting drier. We need to prepare for this changing future. We want your help in deciding how to balance these priorities and set water prices for the next five years. The challenge for us is how do we prepare for tomorrow while being fair to customers today?
3. Greater Western Water, Melbourne Water, South East Water and Yarra Valley Water
Four water authorities coming together for Water for Life, the Greater Melbourne Urban Water and Systems Strategy.
Remit - Melbourne is growing and our climate is changing. Given this changing future, we need to act now to find long-term water solutions. How do we confidently meet our diverse water needs for the next 50 years?
4. South East Water: 2023 – 28 Price Submission Panel
Remit - Water is essential to all of us, and our community has different needs and expectations regarding our water and sewerage services. How should we balance differing community needs and cost our services effectively for current and future communities?
5. Yarra Valley Water: 2023 – 28 Price Submission Mini Panels and Citizens’ Jury
Remit - With the challenges of climate change and population growth in mind, the quality and reliability of water supply and sewerage services are critical needs. Clear communication and transparency are essential to empower and inform users to access resources in a respectful, equitable and sustainable way. How can water and the environment be protected and respected for and by present and future generations?
A note: Greater Western Water are commencing their price submission deliberation process in March and we look forward to sharing more about this in the next few months.
DELIBERATION PURPOSE
There were two general purposes across the above deliberative processes:
Planning for quality and reliable water supplies whilst considering how we minimise the impact of current and future trends, impacts and issues (Barwon Water and combined water authorities)
Exploration of service and pricing requirements to support the needs of all customers, and recommendations on what is important to plan for in the next five years. (Coliban Water, Greater Western Water, South East Water and Yarra Valley Water)
OVERVIEW
1. Barwon Water: Water For Our Future Panel x 3
Barwon Water worked with the community and regional partners about long-term water security including the challenge of facing a hotter, drier climate.
The Water For Our Future Community Panel was then set in motion to take Barwon Water’s conversation with community to a deeper level. The Panel carefully considered the wider engagement results, research, expert opinion and personal, lived experiences, and were invited to make decisions and recommendations to influence Barwon Water’s Urban Water Strategy.
What sets the Barwon Water process apart:
Barwon Water designed their process to deliberate and build on outcomes across three panels, always furthering the thinking and recommendations from the 52-person panel.
The task of Panel 1
(October - November 2020)
was to:
Set a vision for the water future that will provide a lens for Barwon Water decisions for years to come.
Make recommendadtions about the criteria for the assessment of ideas/ options.
The task of Panel 2
(February - March 2021)
was to:
Provide a short list of preferred ideas/options that could deliver the vision and best meet the criteria to be carried forward for consideration in the Draft 2022 Urban Water Strategy.
The task of Panel 3
(November 2021)
was to:
Check whether Barwon Water has appropriately considered the community views in developing the draft strategy and make recommendations on the draft strategy before it is finalised by Barwon Water.
Barwon Water won the 2022 IAP2 Core Values Environment award for this work. Read more.
2. Coliban Water: 2023 – 28 Price Submission Panel
In 2021, Coliban Water embarked upon engagement for its water pricing submission to seek customer input into their five-year pricing plan. The results of this engagement have been submitted to the Essential Services Commission (ESC) for approval. The Coliban Water Price Submission engagement process began with broader community engagement, with insights from this process being fed into the ‘deep dive’ Community Panel.
The panel began on 9 February 2022 and included an initial 45 people. Panellists were independently recruited by Sortition Foundation in order to match the demographic profile of the Coliban Water Region.
The Panel came together for an evening meet-and-greet session, followed by four full days of deliberation. The group was tasked with producing recommendations to be used by Coliban Water to guide their development of a submission to the ESC on water pricing for the next five years. The Panel also offered specific feedback on four specific dilemmas identified by Coliban Water.
What sets the Coliban Water process apart:
As part of a commitment to ongoing engagement, Coliban Water has established two advisory groups following the Panel. The recruitment process for these groups consisted of panel members and new, randomly-selected community members. The groups represent different geographic areas and will continue to meet throughout 2023.
3. Greater Western Water, Melbourne Water, South East Water and Yarra Valley Water – Greater Metropolitan Melbourne Urban Water and System Strategy - ‘Water For Life’
The Water for Life Community Panel was auspiced by the four metropolitan Melbourne water authorities who committed to developing a vision and a set of community criteria as part of the Water for Life Strategy; to build a secure water future for the greater Melbourne region.
The engagement commenced in September 2020, culminating with a community panel in June 2021. Fifty-two people were originally selected to descriptively represent the demographics of the four water businesses, and they met intensively for seven sessions across six weeks. The panel was independently recruited by Sortition Foundation and produced one vision statement and 14 community criteria to help assess different options put forward in the strategy, that ultimately achieve the vision.
What sets the Water for Life process apart:
This was the first time that these water corporations came together to develop the Greater Melbourne Water and Systems Strategy (Water for Life). This involved bringing together a project team, governance structure and resourcing to support a combined approach to delivery. The project team worked extraordinarily hard to connect with the water corporations and we had a wide range of observers represented throughout the process.
Drawing from such a wide geographic area, the panel was culturally diverse and brought in people that had never participated in any sort of government / authority decision making (42% of participants).
4. South East Water: 2023 – 28 Price Submission Panel
The South East Water Price Submission Panel was commissioned to consider how South East Water balances customers’ and community needs while making sure the cost of services work for everyone, now and into the future. South East Water wanted to ensure its business decisions best reflected customers’ priorities and deliver what they value most for the 2023 – 2028 Price Submission, a five-year review of the price of water and sewerage services.
Fifty people were originally independently recruited for the panel; however before the panel commenced, a number of panel members withdrew, leaving an active 34 members. This panel went ahead through the height of COVID and endured lockdowns and Melbourne coming out of lockdowns. The panel came together over seven sessions on Zoom, between October and December 2021.
What sets the South East Water Price Submission process apart:
There was extensive and targeted wider community engagement that fed into the South East Water panel. More than 7700 people participated in a range of surveys, interviews, focus groups, public workshops and ‘what will you pay?’ testing on a range of surveys. The data that this produced was rich and was utilised throughout the panel process.
The South East Water panel also invested 48 hours of information sharing / understanding, deliberation and decision making. That is a significant investment of time for community members.
5. Yarra Valley Water: 2023 – 28 Price Submission Mini Panels and Citizens’ Jury
Throughout 2021 - 22, Yarra Valley Water embarked upon a series of engagement activities to support its Price Submission for 2023-2028. The project was initially activated in February 2021, with a co-designed engagement approach with community and stakeholder-based ‘critical friends’.
A wider engagement phase led into a set of six smaller panels convened throughout October and November 2021 to define the main ‘problems’ specific to each cohort. These mini panels included those with different accessibility needs (blind/low vision, deaf/hard of hearing, culturally and linguistically diverse), those who live on the edge of the service area, young people and a randomly-selected group of participants.
Representatives from each panel came together for one day as a combined panel in November 2021 and put forward a remit and a set of 12 problem statements for the citizens’ jury to address.
The final phase of the price submission engagement was the citizens’ jury, which brought together diverse customers within the Yarra Valley Water region. A total of 16 participants from the mini panels went through to the final jury and they were joined by 24 new, randomly-selected customers based on age, gender and location across the service area.
What sets the Yarra Valley Water Price Submission process apart:
Yarra Valley Water invested many hours in hearing what its community thought about its service levels and pricing structure. The mini panels and jury processes yielded 150 hours of dialogue and deliberation. This is more than double any other process we have shared in this case study.
Right from the start of the process, the co-design approach invited in ‘critical friends’ to help ‘sense check’ the way Yarra Valley Water wanted to engage the community. They came from academia, government and community institutions and represented regulation, policy, community and water services. It was an investment of three workshops over a few months. This approach recognised the need for Yarra Valley Water to take deliberation one step further than the norm.
This next-level step included six mini panels who were recruited to amplify the voices that Yarra Valley Water seldom hear. These panels represented such diverse voices that each panel had a tailored approach that supported active participation. The other interesting point of the mini panels was that they came together to finalise the remit for the final citizens’ jury.
Yarra Valley Water won the 2022 IAP2 Core Values Planning award for this work.
TECHNOLOGY CHALLENGES
In nearly all cases, panel members participated online (Zoom) via their personal devices. This ranged from PCs and laptops to iPads. Where possible, the online sessions were mixed with in-person sessions when it was safe to do so (managing the impacts of COVID).
The facilitation teams gained awareness of which panel members needed additional technology support and ensured these people were partnered with other more ‘tech savvy’ participants to ensure maximum engagement.
The Yarra Valley Water Price Submission Jury required additional planning and thinking about the use of technology to consider and accommodate the accessibility needs of all participants.
the participants’ experiences
We often find it best to let the participants speak for themselves. Let’s see what they have to say:
Watch the video on the Barwon Water – Water for our Future page
Video coming soon - Yarra Valley Water Price Submission
THE FACILITATION TEAM’S REFLECTIONS: KEYS TO SUCCESS
There have been so many wonderful insights from working with the water sector over the past three years. Here are a few key reflections and lessons learned:
Think about your community and your dilemma and explore diverse ways to bring both broad and deep engagement techniques into the process.
If you have some serious affordability and future planning questions, think carefully about what you can hand over to the community to decide – you will be so impressed with the results.
There are many ways to undertake deliberative engagement with big important issues – please consider adapting and expanding your engagement plans to bring in different elements.
All these panels were held online, using platforms such as Zoom, GroupMap and experienced facilitators. Most importantly, the will of the water corporations to hear many different voices from their respective communities enabled this to happen.
WATER WORKS 2021 – 2023 FAST FACTS
Total number of Panellists = 359
Total number of deliberation hours = 331hrs
Number of recommendations produced = 43*
Total number of visions = 2
Total number of criteria = 20
Total number of principles = 5
Total number of themes = 21
Total number of options analysed = 55
Read more of our case studies
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