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extended by the residents of Orange.
While Council, as a local government
authority, is mandated to consult with
the community, the actual degree of
interaction goes much beyond that.
At an informal level, Orange City
Council started a practice of giving
talks to various groups about the
water supply situation and the steps
being taken to ensure that residents
received adequate water. The result
was that the entire community became
water efficient. This development,
along with the infrastructure solutions
implemented by Council, resulted in a
situationwheretherewasplentyofwater.
Speaking about the reaction of the
community to a surplus water situation,
Chris Devitt says, “But the community
said that we do not want to go back
to unrestricted water use, we want to
self-regulate the consumption of water
and in the last five years the average
usage has gone down significantly.
“So not only have we achieved
good things from an engineering
and a physical capacity point of
view, but the attitudinal change
and the awareness of people to be
water efficient and water conscious
has been significant and that
has been a real lasting benefit.”