Studying Best Practices, Together
CHALLENGE: Van Anda Improvement District (VAID) is a community of 500 people living on the Texada Island in BC. The community has been struggling to provide potable water to their residents, resulting in posting several water advisories over the past decade. BWAs are posted frequently during the summer months because coliforms are regularly detected in water samples from the community’s distribution system.
The community has gone back and forth between pet solutions advocated for by various vendors.
SOLUTION: The community decided to explore viable practices together. The participants created opportunity to pilot several treatment options and examine pros and cons so the community could decide for themselves which options to invest in. Hard work from the community’s leadership in investigating pragmatic solutions was rewarded with a grant from the provincial government.
KEY CONSIDER ATIONS: Through organizing an open house, the entire community was made aware of how their needs are being handled, and what design principles are being followed. VAID’s Board of Trustees were able to address questions like what works, why and how? There was constructive dialogue among the partners focusing on the community’s needs and requirements, rather than arguments.
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Breaking with Conventions
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