Steve Wilson posted on November 28, 2011 07:39
This is the 3rd post covering the communication toolbox, a new tool available from CDC on how to prepare, deal with, and learn from situations where you need to (precautionary) or have to (mandatory) communicate with your customers to advise them of a drinking water situation in your community. The 1st blog post provided an overview of the toolbox, the 2nd blog post discussed the introduction section of the toolbox, which explained some of the basics about when and why you should communicate with the public. Today, we'll provide you with some suggestions they provide for small systems.
For Small Systems Using the Toolbox
The toolbox was written for water systems, both large and small. But, it was developed with both in mind. We've already mentioned that we think the toolbox is one of the most complete tools available to help you with communicating with the public during an emergency, and on page 13, they offer some suggestions for small systems, recognizing that sometimes small systems may not have the capacity to implement all of the suggestions listed in the toolbox. Basically, these are the things every small system should do to be prepared, regardless of the emergency.
1. Identify and prioritize specific tools or sections in the toolbox to use. The toolbox is worth going through, cover to cover, to really understand what it means to communicate with your customers and to be prepared in an emergency. In doing so, you will find many great ideas that will help you prepare, act, and recover from an emergency situation. Pick and choose what you think will work for your specific situation and within the capacity of your system and community.
2. Incorporate water advisory protocol planning into regular activities, such as sanitary surveys and updating emergency response plans. I'm sure some of you think this is "beyond" what you can do, and may not even have an emergency response plan in place for your system. That is a great place to start and there are some great templates available from RCAP and Rural Water that walk you through development of a plan. Do that first, and you will understand why its important to be prepared and think ahead, rather than react to an emergency. (call or email us, we can help, as can your local TA providers. See the links to the templates below).
3. Build water advisory protocols into regular communication, such as customer updates. Again, some of you may look at this and say, I never send stuff to my customers. Why not? When operators tell me their customers want "free" water, and don't value what they do, I tell them to start marketing to their customers, help them understand what a service you provide, how important safe water is to your community. Operators can't just do the technical stuff anymore, they have to engage their communities to understand the need and importance of safe water. Along with that is the importance of dealing with emergency situations.
4. Partner with local public health and neighboring water systems. Planning for an emergency means working with others outside your community. When a real disaster happens, you need to know what to do, who you can call, who you can rely on for help. You need to ask yourself, what does your community deserve? Doing it all on your own usually ends up hurting your community when a disaster occurs. It's the responsible thing to do, and best for your system and customers. This would also be a good time to mention your state's WARN program. Look into it, consider how it might benefit your community.
Getting Started
Remember these suggestions as you go through the toolbox. Find the pieces that you think will work for you. It states that many of the actions you can consider taking, as described in the toolbox, shouldn't require outside support from consultants or others. It also says building a network of partners and organizations to work with in an emergency is the key to success. We agree.
Should you have any questions, let us know. We will gladly help you navigate through the material and find resources that you can use with your customers for both emergency response and just for marketing the value of your water system.
Below are links to some of the resources mentioned above:
Rural Community Assistance Partnership (RCAP)
National Rural Water Association (NRWA)
Water & Wastewater Agency Response Networks (WARN)
(click on the "WARN Regions" tab to find your state WARN program)
How To Run Your System Like A Business is a series at SmallWaterSupply.org, appearing on Monday.