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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.”