Walking the dog on one of the very wet mornings we have had, I noticed an extraordinary number of worms wriggling around on the puddly pavement. A delicious feast for any early birds up and ready for breakfast.
In terms of communications, it really is the early bird that catches the juiciest worms. Anticipating the information different stakeholders need, at the earliest stage of planning, shapes the narrative from the start and gives a much greater chance of securing their buy-in. It can make the difference between a project failing and sailing.
I was reminded of this when editing a story about a research project in Amhara, Ethiopia, to find out how to ensure the valuable resource collected in urine-separation toilets was actually redeployed as fertiliser to help low-income farmers. Where innovations require a change in behaviour, especially where this challenges social norms, it becomes imperative to analyse that landscape and identify to the route to acceptability.
“Although urine is considered safe to use, this does not necessarily mean that urine is culturally classified as clean,” said lead researcher Divina Gracia Rodriguez from the Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research. “Also, farmers have preferences for what kind of fertilisers they apply in their field, so this is also something we need to take into consideration.”
Significantly, Dr Rodriguez had already factored in effective outreach as key to unlocking the benefits of the urine for agriculture.
“Upholding good communications with various user groups along the way will be key to our success,” she said. “Many new innovations and new products fail because of lack of public acceptance.”
She said the international team aimed to disseminate evidence-based knowledge showing that urine is an effective and safe fertiliser, and will identify strategies “to ensure that the use of urine as fertiliser is sustained over time.”
Her words came to mind during British Water’s Annual Conference in Manchester on 21 November. In a keynote delivered by Jane Simpson, commercial, engineering & capital delivery director at United Utilities (UU), delegates heard about extraordinary community partnerships taking place in schools in north-west England.
The water company has been working with some of the big consultancies on rainwater separation in schools – keeping stormwater out of the sewerage system by disconnecting downpipes and capturing water from large roofs. The benefits do not stop there, as well as creating visually appealing amenities there is also educational value.
“The schools really appreciate it,” said Simpson. “There are a lot of deprived schools in our area and they’re really up for this – teaching kids about where food comes from and how flowers grow.”
Similar projects have been delivered in by suppliers like SuDSPlanter. Following extensive flooding at Merstham Primary School in Surrey, when rainwater overwhelmed the drainage system, a proposal was developed that would include multiple SuDSPlanter units.
Located around the school site, specially-designed garden planters were used to manage rainwater run-off by capturing and attenuating flow into the drainage system. The school children helped design signage that explained how the water-cycle for sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) works, as well as helping to plant-up the boxes, and the planters are used throughout the year to aid teaching.
The connection between water, nature, biodiversity, horticulture and education could not be clearer in projects of this kind, and they segue neatly into the repeated call from the sector for the public to be better informed on the challenges faced on water. Children are the future and the value of sowing literal seeds, along with water-cycle and horticultural knowledge cannot be undervalued – but adults need the knowledge too.
UU’s investment in blue-green solutions will undergo a massive step-change from AMP7 to AMP8, increasing from £20 million to £500 million. If UU’s plans are representative, this is a transformation in the kinds of work water companies do and brings them into much closer contact with the communities they serve.
To accrue the maximum value from the projects, a similar scaling up of communications will be required. If done early, and well, then the public and other stakeholders will not only support projects, they will demand them. This will give every chance of innovative water systems – whether in Amhara or Aberdeen – being “sustained over time”.
