Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
pollutants at the source. Such an approach would require the change of established
behavioral practice in the community or established agricultural practices in the region.
Thus, such an approach would be difficult to achieve by the efforts of one managing
institution only, but would require the support and involvement of all sectors of the
community and the public at local and national level.
One very important aspect of any public involvement program is the extent at which
the public will be convinced in the need for their contribution and involvement. In many
cases, the link between the managing authority and the community is non-existent, and
this is more often the case in low-income areas. Therefore, the first step of any efforts to
involve the public in the management of water quality in their neighborhood should be
the establishment of such a link, where the local authorities should take the lead in this
process. Probably, one of the most important objectives of any public involvement
program should be to obtain the trust and confidence of the people, who are expected to
be involved in the consequent stages of the program. As in the case of educational and
information activities, the forms of public involvement are numerous and differ according
to the specifics of each country. As the first step of the process, it would be advisable to
identify the major stakeholders, or groups of stakeholders, which should be addressed.
These could be:
• The local community:
Residential;
Churches;
Schools;
Business representatives;
Political representatives;
Council wards;
• Local media:
Print and broadcast organizations;
• Official authorities:
Municipality representatives;
City commissioners;
Government officials;
• Non-governmental organizations and environmentalists;
• Residential and commercial developers;
• The public.
The preparation and execution of programs to mobilize the public into the management
process of diffuse pollution abatement should involve and integrate different techniques.
It is important to point that each activity must be clearly understood, within the context of
the target group and the objectives of the whole process or program. Some common
activities or techniques have been emphasized in Chapter 2. In the case of low-income
areas, volunteer programs to maintain the cleanness of the area, to perform simple
