Welcome to the Winter Edition of News Splash. Over the past year, infrastructure failures in Edmonton, Calgary, Montreal and Winnipeg made the news, which made our ‘brilliantly invisible’ water systems much more visible. The issue of aging infrastructure dominated discussions among senior water leaders during our meetings held this quarter. Given the age of infrastructure in Canada’s big cities, service interruptions are a reality, despite sophisticated asset management and inspection programs. It is how you manage them that matters to the public.
A large part of that response is clear public communication regarding the extent of the service interruption, including how long it will last and whether residents and businesses need to cut back on water consumption. It used to be a mostly straightforward exercise in getting the message out to the public through traditional news outlets —TV, newspapers and radio. Now, reaching the public to ensure they receive critical messages about service interruptions and water restrictions has become more challenging. This is due to the public’s shift to multiple online platforms and the proliferation of misinformation from social media influencers.
Early into Calgary’s feedermain service interruption, there was social media commentary that suggested that the City had ‘made up’ the emergency to impose outdoor water restrictions permanently. This experience prompted Nancy McKay, Calgary’s Director of Water Services, to share the following insight:
“In the absence of information and technical details, the public will speculate and even make things up. As utilities, we need to resist the temptation to only share technical details once we have them all sorted. To maintain and build trust, it is important to show the details sooner and faster, sharing what we know, what we don’t, when we expect to know more and why it matters.”
The value of getting your message out early and often is echoed by Benjamin Morgan, CEO of the Centre for Crisisand Risk Communications, who is featured in this edition’s Thought Leader Interview. He advises municipalities to soften the ground with risk communications messaging before an event, communicating the behaviour change you are looking for and why. This helps counter public outrage when you must ask for changes in water use during a service interruption.
The challenge of risk communication doesn’t end with service interruptions. Members of the public are increasingly concerned about microplastics and PFAS in food, air and water. Communicating the extent to which water treatment can remove persistent contaminants, what their fate is once removed, as well as potential risk to human health, is something that water utilities need to figure out and get ahead of. This was the topic of CWN’s webinar in November on risk communication with Dr. Vince Covello. For more information on the latest PFAS research, see International Research Updates below.
Learn about other exciting insights, events and program firsts in this newsletter, including:
- The launch of CWN’s Net Zero Water project
- Federal updates, including the latest from the Canada Water Agency
- Save-the-date for Blue Cities 2025 on May 14-15 bluecities.ca
Wishing you a peaceful new year,
Nicola Crawhall