The Venn diagram below is a high-level way of visualizing the context for the DWWP.  An over-arching goal of drinking water and watershed protection in the Regional District of Nanaimo (RDN) is to transform good intentions and associated policies into effective practices on the ground. Getting such practices right is key to achieving beneficial outcomes, and, ultimately serving the common good.

Beneficial outcomes depend on alignment of interests within a regional team framework, such that all players involved in the local government mix are guided by shared responsibility and collaborative leadership. These are foundational ingredients.

The 5Cs – communication, cooperation, coordination, and critical thinking and creativity – are also essential ingredients. The DWWP Service is the container to hold the 5Cs. What is the container? It is funding, people and continuity.

Scroll down and read about the interview with Ben Geselbracht, local government elected representative. He is one of three RDN Board members who were tasked with responsibility for guiding DWWP Action Plan 2.0 over the finish line in 2020.

EDITOR’S PERSPECTIVE

DWWP Genesis…. Know One’s History!

DWWP perspective on water as a metaphor for collaborative leadership

“The metaphor of water is relevant when talking about the incremental progress evolving land and water management in the RDN. Water flowing as a river and slowly washing over river rocks takes a while to shape those rocks. Meanwhile, the river channel itself is incrementally changing over time, is the way Julie Pisani, DWWP Program Coordinator, describes DWWP evolution,” continued Kim Stephens.

“Water teaches us that progress is not always going to be a firehose. Sometimes it is going to be more like a trickle, or a pool. The ultimate process, one that will never be done, is to figure out how we can manage land and water and people and everything that comes along with it, concludes Julie Pisani.”

DWWP experience would inform the Watershed Security Strategy and Fund

“The RDN is one of five regional district partners in the Georgia Basin Inter-Regional Educational Initiative (IREI). The Partnership for Water Sustainability functions as the secretariat for this collaborative initiative. The IREI purpose is to facilitate peer-based education among local governments on the east coast of Vancouver Island and in the Lower Mainland,” explained Kim Stephens.

“In March 2022, the Partnership released Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Watershed Security Strategy is a Building Block. This was the Partnership’s submission to the Province. A key message is that the Province has much to learn from the long-term experience of the RDN and the other IREI partners.”

The program vision for the DWWP Service function, the motivating sense of purpose, and career commitment are enthusiastically shared by successive generations of program champions at the Board and senior management levels, and by program managers and doers. Success does not depend on one individual. It has been, and continues to be, a team effort. When the baton is handed off, everyone understands that the race is a marathon, not a sprint.

Strong and enduring political leadership is a critical success factor. Over the past two decades, successive Regional Boards have handed the DWWP baton to their successors to carry on the mission. Director Ben Geselbracht is one of three Board members who guided DWWP Action Plan 2.0 over the finish line. Elected to Nanaimo City Council in 2018, he provides a contemporary Board perspective.

Program Success Comes Down to Strong Political Leadership

“Having stable funding has been a huge part of the success of the DWWP program. It has enabled education of both the community and those who hold political office. This laid the foundation for strong Board support,” stated Ben Geselbracht in an interview for Drinking Water & Watershed Protection in the Regional District of Nanaimo – Right People in Place in Right Place at Right Time, Over Time.

“Because Board members are well-educated about the issues, we can provide informed and strong leadership that allows staff to achieve program objectives. We see the fruits of collaboration that brings people together at the same table to move processes forward. This collaboration has also led to the spread of important pieces of knowledge and understanding.”

“Education and collaboration – these are the key ingredients of the success of everything that the RDN does under the DWWP program.”

Watershed-Based Approach

“Prior to becoming a member of the Regional Board, I was well aware of the DWWP program and that the watershed is a fundamental management unit. The effectiveness of the community outreach by the team led by Julie Pisani made the DWWP a visible entity in the community. When I joined the Board, my focus was on updating the DWWP and making it a Strategic Plan priority.”

“Because the updating and educational process for DWWP Action Plan 2.0 was so thorough, the entire Board had a clear understanding of why it was important and necessary to: 1) address climate change adaptation; and, 2) integrate what had been learned in Decade #1 of the DWWP into regional policies and land use planning in Decade #2.”

“Design With Nature” as a Guiding Philosophy

”When I think about sustaining the DWWP legacy from one Board to the next, it is about viewing it within a larger vision for creating sustainable human settlement. Looking through an inter-generational lens, the term permaculture is what resonates with me. It has three guiding principles. The first is care of land. It is foundational because the other two build on it. The second principle is care of people, and the third is care of the process.”

“When our perspective is the watershed, water is fundamentally what keeps everything moving. It maintains biodiversity; it maintains our health. The watershed is the foundational scale of consideration, and therefore we must base our design of human settlements upon it.

“The DWWP is helping us to identify the care of land considerations that we must design human settlements around. We are not there yet, mainly because watershed governance is distributed due to fractured jurisdictional responsibilities (i.e. federal, provincial, regional, local).”

“A long-term and shared community vision is necessary to integrate all the care of land considerations such that Design With Nature is on the tip of everyone’s tongue. And when that happens, people will understand why our communities must be built based on care of land principles.”

DWWP would inform the “Watershed Security Strategy & Fund”

“DWWP initiatives include community education and outreach, rebate programs, community-based monitoring initiatives, scientific studies and reporting, water-expertise to support development referrals, and advocacy for policy improvements.”

“As DWWP Program Coordinator Julie Pisani reminds us, we always come back to the DWWP vision. It is over-arching, outcome-oriented and lays out what we need to do to understand and manage water in our region. The program is a ‘one-stop’ source for local government initiatives on water stewardship.”

“Cooperation with the four municipalities results in consistent messaging, efficient use of resources and a concerted effort to establish strong water-awareness and cultivate a responsible water culture in the Nanaimo region,” concluded Ben Geselbracht.