The Revitalising Geographe Waterways program has been announced as finalists in the WA Program Innovation Award for the Australian Water Association (AWA) 2018 awards.
The award recognises programs that are innovative with outstanding features that set them apart from common practice, are relevant to the Australian water industry and have strong water resource benefits and sustainable deign principals.
Project Manager Dr Kath Lynch from the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation (DWER) said the program was recognised due to its strong collaborative frameworks and partnership approach to implementing the program.
“We were really happy to be announced as finalists” said Kath. “We have really taken a very different approach in this program to collaborate meaningfully which has why the program is successful in both improving water quality and relationships”.
The collaboration philosophy of the program starts at the top with the interagency Vasse Taskforce who oversee the program.
“The Taskforce has been critical to the success of the program” said Kath “They have ensured a truly collaborative government approach and have created strong partnerships with community and industry groups which is needed if we are to make substantial improvements in water quantity”.
The successful outcomes of the thirty projects that make up the Revitalising Geographe Waterways program are a credit to the many project delivery partners and the support of interagency project teams and the community.
A huge success of the program has been the collaborative community, industry, farmer and science groups that have been established to support the program and improve relationships across the many players who are interested in improving the health of Geographe Waterways.
“I am really proud of the collaborative groups that have supported the program” said Kath. “We have learnt and achieved so much more than we would have working alone and ultimately our waterways and community will benefit from this collaborative approach”.
The winners of the WA AWA awards will be announced at an awards dinner in Perth on the 26th of October.