This paper suggests key challenges facing our understandrng of public responses to water recycling and oUr effqrts to provide effective public consultation. The current understanding of public reactions to water recycling is insufficient to predict support in general or for specific schemes, and cannot .obviate a thorough investigation and-engagement for each proposal. Such support as is eviden.t maY,!lot be robust We need to provide better opportunities and mechanisms, and a wider scope, for community involvement These entail a broader conception of the infonnation needs of participants, and careful integration of education and consultation processes. Our discussion forms the rationale for a program of research as part of the Oz-AQUAREC project We propose trialling discourse analysis methods, fIrst, to examine the views expressed in focus groups and try to understand their social bases, and second, to facilitate interactions between technical practitioners, authorities and community groups.
Recycling is starting to play a significant role in water management in drought-prone Australia. Public responses to recycling are still not well understood, and opportunities for public participation have been limited. We have experimented with a technique to explore responses qualitatively and to encourage deliberation. In smallgroup meetings, we provide information on recycling technologies and issues and integrate this with opportunities to discuss and question. We have trialed the approach in communities with different experiences of recycling. Our rationale comes from dissatisfaction with existing consultation processes, and with a prevalent technocratic view that people simply need technical information to correct misperceptions and overcome emotional responses; from issues in literatures on participation and social acceptance of technologies; and from a concern that apparent support for recycling is not robust. We illustrate insights from the work into processes of deliberation and possibilities for achieving a better understanding through such methods.
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