Community Education and Engagement : Cleanwaterways.org.nz - Promoting cleaner water in Christchurch, New Zealand

Relevant Research reports

Relevant background research is available at the following links:

Curletts Rd waterway at Curletts Road opposite A&P Showgrounds. Flows into Heathcote River/Ōpāwaho.

Toi tū te marae o Tangaroa
Toi tū te marae o Tāne
Toi tū te iwi

If we look after the waters and land around us, we will be looked after in turn.

Community Education and Engagement

Community Education and Engagement (CEE) is one of the individual projects under the Improving Urban Waterway Health programme.

CEE has three components:

General awareness raising Christchurch-wide
Developing and piloting education and engagement tools at a sub-catchment level at Okeover Stream with the University of Canterbury
Acting on other opportunities as they arise

General Awareness Campaign

Environment Canterbury in 2009 undertook a programme of community research to better understand the attitudes to Christchurch's urban waterway health issues.

This included an initial series of qualitative focus groups, which identified that visual images showing both the issue and the solution had the most impact in terms of communicating messages about waterway interconnectivity.

An initial benchmark quantitative survey was conducted in June 2009.

An advertising campaign was run in July and August 2009 - developed in conjunction with Christchurch City Council and funded by Environment Canterbury - based on the research findings. This comprised a number of billboards, print media advertising, bus interiors, radio adverts, posters, a website and engagement with an external advisory group.

A follow-up survey was conducted in September 2009 to gauge the effectiveness of the two-month campaign. The results showed:

At least 65% recall for at least one waterways campaign message.
The advertising phrase "Let's change our ways, to change our waterways" had 26% recall.
There was a modest increase (7-8%) in the proportion of people who perceive waterways are unhealthy, quality of water is poor to adequate, and water from gutters ends up in rivers, streams and waterways.
There was an 86% agreement with 'Councils should tell us more about how we can better help to improve the health of rivers, streams, and waterways'.

Read the Christchurch Urban Waterways Communication Evaluation September 2009 Executive Summary Report [PDF 875 KB]

In 2010, Environment Canterbury has continued with the advertising campaign, with slightly altered adverts. The 2010 campaign has included print media advertising, bus backs and radio adverts.

Bus Backs - see the bus back adverts »

Bus back promoting Clean Waterways.

Radio - use this link for the radio adverts »

Education and Engagement in Okeover Stream

Environment Canterbury, in partnership with the University of Canterbury, is undertaking a pilot project within the Okeover Stream catchment, which is a sub-catchment of the Avon River/Ōtākaro, to try to increase awareness of the stream, factors affecting its health, including stormwater (runoff from buildings and roads etc. when it rains), and what people can do to help.

Ultimately we want to develop and pilot education and engagement tools that will work for the community in this catchment. Development of the tools with the community is key - we want the Okeover Community to own the tools, so it is not Environment Canterbury and University of Canterbury preaching to them.

Why Okeover Stream?

Okeover Stream has been chosen as a pilot engagement project (at a sub-catchment level) for a number of reasons, including:

The well-defined nature of the stream
It does not have a large catchment.
The work that has already been done to improve the stream (which does not look like a ditch or boxed waterway).
The University of Canterbury's existing waterways project incorporating research and monitoring.
Support and assistance in project planning from the Sustainability Advocate for the University of Canterbury.
The water quality in the stream can be improved.

What has been done?

Phone Survey

After sending out a letter to 705 households in the Okeover Catchment in late February 2010 informing residents about the project, 280 households were contacted via phone to take part in the Okeover Phone Survey.

The purpose of the phone survey was to:

Inform as to whether or not people are interested in the health of their local stream;
Provide an understanding of the local community's current perceptions, knowledge and behaviour around the stream and stormwater;
Serve as an evaluation tool. It will provide a baseline of the local community's understanding and willingness to undertake activities to improve the health of Okeover Stream, which can be re-surveyed once education and engagement tools have been rolled out.
Serves as a method to recruit residents of the Okeover Stream catchment for focus group work.

The results of the phone survey showed that:

68% had heard of Okeover Stream
62% said the water from their property went to stormwater
50% said the Okeover was quite healthy.
35% said Okeover was not very healthy.
More than two-thirds said rubbish was causing damage.
46% said they did not think there was anything they could do to improve the health of the stream.

Read the full version of the Phone Survey Report:

Improving Urban Waterway Health: local public perceptions of stormwater and the Okeover Stream, Christchurch (University of Canterbury and Environment Canterbury, 2010) [PDF 1.27 MB]

Focus Groups

Seven focus groups were run at the end of April beginning of May 2010. A total of 46 individuals participated in the sessions and were either residents, representatives from business, university departments, students and/or users of the stream.

The aim of the focus groups was to explore people's thinking regarding the health of Okeover Stream and what initiatives might help foster greater interest and actions to improve the health of the stream. Tools may include reminders and encouragement for people to wash their cars on grassed areas away from gutters and drains, vouchers and rewards to encourage 'good' behaviour, front-of-mind slogans on stickers or fridge-magnets, etc.

Read the full version of the Focus Group Report:

Improving urban waterway health: Okeover Stream Focus Group report (Environment Canterbury, 2010) [PDF 2.75 MB]

Environment Canterbury also hopes this process will help develop and refine a template for improving urban waterway health by a process of community education and engagement which can be applied in other catchments throughout Christchurch.

Read the Spring 2010 Okeover Stream Catchment Newsletter [PDF 645 KB]