Engaging local government decision makers in water sensitive approaches

A new industry note provides insights on how local governments can support liveable cities and identify effective strategies for building executive-level support. It draws on our work with Urbaqua on building the water sensitive cities capacity of local government decision makers. 

While based on experience with local governments in Western Australia, the industry note identifies 5 ways to foster water sensitive decision makers that can be applied in any location:

1. Strengthen strategic leadership by embedding water sensitive principles into key planning and strategy documents. 
2. Address funding and resource gaps for water sensitive projects. 
3. Build staff capability through training, on both technical aspects of water sensitive approaches, as well as influencing and collaboration skills. 
4. Improve cross-departmental collaboration to share knowledge and resources. 
5. Advocate for campaigns that build community water literacy.