Critical Analysis of the Campaign Objectives - Wonthaggi Desalination - Case Study Example

Your water, your say Author’s name Institutional affiliation Contents Contents 1 Executive summary The Wonthaggi Desalination plant is basically a water desalination plant that is based on the Bass coast situated near Wonthaggi an area around Southern Victoria of Australia and was completed in the year 2012.Additionally, it is a very essential part of the water system of Victoria since it supplies a quantifiable amount of water through a series of proposed and existing pipelines. Moreover, the Wonthaggi desalination plant developed as a response to the population and water restrictions policy governing Victoria such as the “Our water, Our Future” Victoria water plan (Christen, 2005, 15). Furthermore, the marketing material of this project was via digital and television promotions and advertisements, via print, as well as other associated sister projects like the Cardinal Pipeline, North-South pipeline and the proposed Geelong interconnector. The desalination plant is approximately five hundred meters inland and its infrastructure comprises of the tunnels that are connecting the desalination plant to the marine discharge and intake structures up to approximately 1.2 km out to the sea, an eighty-five kilometers pipeline that is connecting the Wonthaggi desalination plant to Melbourne’s water system supply as well as a desalination plant power supply structure (Australian Water Association, 2010, 9). Additionally, the desalination plant offers approximately one hundred and fifty gigalitres of extra water annually with the potential to grow and expand its water supply and production to approximately two hundred gigalitres annually. The Wonthaggi desalination plant encountered an opposition campaign that emanated from local residents, community groups and the Australian greens. By so saying, it means that, regular public rallies as far as opposition is concerned were conducted in Melbourne and on the site since its project proposal (Burningham et al, .2009, 13). By so doing, one community advocacy group known as Your Water, Your Say was declared bankrupt as a result of pursued legal costs and a lost legal case after the community group engaged the Victorian government of missing reports and consultation. Moreover, the pursued legal case revolved around (Burningham et al, 2009, 13). The original water requirement figures, the feasibility research works and the environmental report as well as other issues relating to the Wonthaggi desalination plant and the society. However, as of recent times, a new opposition campaign by another group known as the Watershed Victoria has proceeded with the opposition campaign until recently. Full Production of the Wonthaggi desalination plant was realized in the late 2012, however, owing to the fact that Melbourne’s reservoirs are over eighty-percent full; the desalination plant was forced to operate in standby mode (ABS,2007,web). Therefore, this paper will critically examine the planning, designing and the implementation of ‘Your Water Your Say’ opposition campaign and from the results, make some conclusion remarks about the Wonthaggi desalination plant. Introduction and background issues The abandoning of the metropolitan and the Melbourne staff board in the year 1992 resulted in the transfer of water planning process control as well as any constructions projects as far as sewerage is concerned to developers (Partnerships Victoria ,2009,web). However the control process transfer incurred a number of criticisms during the Melbourne’s assessments of water supply as well as the desalination plant and during the original feasibility research studies (Burningham et al, .2009, 13). As a result, the Victorian government in the year 2007 established one of the most renowned marketing strategies in the project history known as “Our water, Our Future”. Additionally, as part of the marketing strategy, the Victorian government declared its clear intention to establish large reversible sea water osmosis desalination water plant that will be able to augment the Melbourne’s water supply and other regional water supply systems (Burningham et al., 2009, 13). The overall average water that is entering into the dams in Melbourne from the year 1913 to the year 1996 was approximately 615 GL annually , while the inflow between the years 1997 up to the year 2009 that was characterized by drought stricken period was approximately 376 GL annually (Australian Water Association, 2010,7). Moreover, increasing population growth has pressurized the water reserves (ABS, 2006, web). By way of explanation, it is universally known that the reserves in the Australia’s states water dams have been undergoing a downward spiral since the year 1998 to approximately about a third of its maximum water capacity. Consequently, restrictions as far as water is concerned have existed for quite some time now. Furthermore, the rising winter spring rains that have been occurring since 2007 increased the rate of water storage to approximately above 40%. However, in early September of the year 2010, a number of regions that borders the state experienced floods for the very first time in history since the commencement of the drought in late 1990s which clearly signaled the end of the disastrous drought in victoria owing to the fact that water continued to flow into the reservoirs of Melbourne city (Christen, 2005, 10). Identification of the problem Public and community rallies as well as protests were directed at the project throughout the years 2007 up to 2009 (Ross et al.,2008,web) Additionally, a petition that was officially signed by approximately three thousand individuals who stood against the implementation of the project was presented before the Parliament of victoria in the year 2009.In other words, the community and the public accused the government for building the desalination plant under private-public partnership a move that was clearly termed as privatizing water resources (Burningham et al,2009, 13). Moreover, the public rallies and the protesters claimed that individuals would have to part with approximately $900m annually for both the water and the desalination plant. Another opposition emanated from the Australian Green which is the third biggest political party in Australia as well as the affiliated community groups. In this case, the government was pursued legally by a community group known as ‘Your Water, Your Future’, but in the end, the group lost its legal battle (ABS, 2007, web). As a result, the group was re-directed to cater for the legal costs involved by the government (Ross et al., 2008, web) Critical analysis of the campaign objectives/goals While building on the benchmark of public demand and campaign as far as the Wonthaggi desalination plant is concerned, this opposition campaign aims at preventing the Australian Victorian government from privatizing the water resources (Sunshine & Tyler, 2003, 513) In other words, the public believe that, privatization of the desalination plant will make the acquisition of water more expensive since individuals will have to pay for the resources involved. However, according to the national survey that was conducted in the year 2011, by addressing a number of factors that determine individual attitudes, one can establish the consequential effects and motives behind desalination hence making opposition an irrelevant objective (Ross et al.,2008,web). Another main objective of your water, your say campaign was to pursue the Australian Victorian government because of the missing consultation and reports. Australia is not only the driest continent inhabited on earth but also its average temperatures have risen by approximately 0.9 degrees Celsius since the year 1950 with the current decade going down in history as the warmest of all. Additionally, to be more specific, Victoria State has experienced approximately over twelve drought years with a twenty –percent rainfall decline ever since mid-1990s (Burningham et al, 2009, 13). Owing to this fact, the opposition campaign must realize that, it is no surprise that the Victorian government want s to public-privatize the desalination plant in an effort to sought initiatives of curbing the water scarcity issues and secure water for drinking to its citizens. Additionally, the privatization was a move that was meant to help impose water restrictions policies and measures in both rural and urban regions of Australia Credibility of the opposition campaign as an activist Given the fact that, the opposition campaign survey targeted those individuals living around Wonthaggi, such representative sample can never be assumed to represent the views and ideas of the individuals living in the broader Victoria (Dolnicar & Hurlimann, 2010, 375). Hence, the justification for choosing such like a sample population besides other individuals from other parts of Victoria was to give room for comparing the vies and opinions of those group of individuals around the desalination plant and other parts of Victoria State (Ross et al.,2008,web). However, it is therefore of utmost importance to establish whether the group of respondents for the general victoria is actually a representative one. Analyzing the policy environment The opposition campaign survey plan was done by the Datacol research Pty. Ltd on behalf of ‘Your water, Your Say’ campaign researchers. Additionally, the principal investigators that represented the opposition campaign were the associate professor Dr Tanya King and Kristina Murphy (Dolnicar & Hurlimann, 2010, 375). Moreover, the data and information as far as the records and consultation of the desalination plant by the Victorian campaign. By way of explanation, the survey that was conducted was a twenty-page question booklet which was self-completion that composed of approximately two-hundred and forty questions (Ross et al., 2008, web). The questions in the questionnaire revolved around different psychometric scales such as attitudes to the restrictions of water, individual’s views about water and the environment, the influence and effect of environmental infrastructure on individual’s lives, the connection of individuals to the community and peoples trust in the Victorian government (Platow et al.,2008,747). The survey questionnaire also composed of a clear set of demographic history or rather background variables that covered aspects about the people living in and around the Victoria state. The opposition campaign encompassed both the quantitative and qualitative data which enabled them to obtain additional information, concerns and thought s about the desalination plant. One fundamental primary concern postulated by the research team was that, most residents of the Victorian estate were disappointed by the deprivation of procedural justice as far as the plant development process is concerned with so many predictors of residents discontent to the desalination plant establishment being indicated by the different individual perceptions of procedural injustice as well as lack of consultation (Burningham et al,. 2009, 13). By way of explanation, the campaign defined procedural justice as the overall perceived fairness of the techniques, procedures and planning methods used in decision making as well as the perceived treatment an individual in Victorian receives from the decision maker (Ross et al., 2008, web). To further justify the issue of justice, the opposition campaign team reviewed literatures as part of their planning process. Some of the factors that came up as a result of literature reviews include; emphasizing the importance of fairness in granting decisions that impact citizens, giving citizens a chance to participate in decision making, being categorized as trustworthy, treating all citizens with interpersonal dignity and respect and finally ensuring that power and authority does not take sides in its decision making process (Ross et al., 2008, web). However, the literature above all postulated that, whenever any nation’s citizens feel they have been treated unfairly or injustice has been imparted on them, they may end up developing a group of citizens who are dissatisfied, opposing to project decisions and have distrust of the nation’s decision makers Developing the strategy Given the intensity of opposition campaigns to the desalination plant as well as the perception that the opposition group of the Wonthaggi Desalination Plant were basically those individuals who lived and operated within touching distance to the plant, the campaign saw the need and requirement of soliciting views, opinions and support from those individuals who lived close to the desalination plant as well as those people who live in the bordering states and other parts of Victoria (Hoang,2009,12). Additionally, in order to justify the need and motive of the campaign, the opposition was designed in such a way that, in order to postulate that procedural justice issues were also worrying trends, the questionnaire was also issued to those individuals who were not directly involved with the desalination plant. In other words, the opposition campaign consisted of a sample of individuals residing in the immediate neighborhood affected by the desalination plant and a comparison sample that consisted of individuals from other areas of Victoria. In order to justify the need for opposition campaign, the Your Water, ‘Your say campaign’ registered seven-hundred and fifty individuals living 20 km radius arc from the Wonthaggi Desalination Plant who were randomly sampled from the Victorian state electoral roll. Another important requirement to justify the opposition campaign was met when seven-hundred and fifty Victorians were willingly selected to join the campaign from the electoral roll (ABS, 2007, web). Campaign preparations were well organized as early as 17 July of the year 2010 starting with a federal election which was announced to be held on August 21 of the same year. Additionally, after factoring in some of the consequential effects of the election the rates of response, the opposition campaign divided the two groups of samples into random halves and in the process, assigns each half into different areas around the Wonthaggi desalination campaign and to keep hold of the other group until the end of the election so as to offer support in court to pursue the legality of the desalination plant records and consultation (Murphy & Murphy, 2010, 3). In simple terms, the reserved half of the individuals would function as the insurance policy against a poor response rate of those individuals send to oppose the Wonthaggi desalination plant in areas around the plant. In other words, the two halves from each group can be categorized as the election tranche or rather trance 1 and the post-election tranche or tranche 2.Moreover, each tranche was made up of equal individual addresses living around the Desalination Plant as well as the Victoria state at large. The opposition campaign survey process was modeled based on the Dillman Total method design. The technique offers an attractive survey booklet that consists of clear questions layout which gives room for multiple sending or rather mailings that remind non-respondents to a calling over a period of time. By way of explanation, this technique has already been employed before by a number of opposition campaigns and academic mail surveys in Australia over the current decade (Burningham et al., 2009, 13). Moreover, Up to four mail survey contacts were established during the opposition campaigns survey fielding stage so as to reduce and curb non-response to the opposition call. Furthermore, in order to prevent the public from self-declaring of failing to meet requirements and to prevent the general non-response, there was no stipulated deadline as far as the participation in the opposition campaign was concerned. In simple terms, each sample survey questionnaire contained a reference identity number so as to ensure that only respondents who fail to turn up for the campaign meeting will be followed-up. Implementation plan Campaign activity Start march 2007 Time(Months) End November 2007 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 questionnaire First reminder Campaign planning and development Campaign implementation Pursuance of court justice Findings of the opposition campaign and outcomes When the research team of the opposition campaign conducted its studies about the views and opinions of individuals about water and the environment, the impact of availability of water currently and in the near future, as well as climate change, the findings postulated that; so many individuals were generally worried and concerned about water availability, quite a quantifiable number of individuals felt particularly responsible for environment and water conservation and in most cases, they considered themselves in the know about the environment(King & Murphy, 2009,105). On the whole, it was realized that, respondents also were of the opinion that, it was not solely the government’s task to offer and provide as much water as the citizens wanted. When individuals were asked about water restrictions by the government to limit the citizen’s use of water and the general level of authority that the government should possess in order to reduce or limit individuals usage of water, the findings were as follows; most people approximately seventy-seven percent agreed with the government’s deterrence strategy of limiting the usage of water. In other words, these individuals supported the government’s imposition of fines and taxes on water bills to penalize those individuals as well as organizations who flout the rules of water usage (CSIRO, 2007, web). However, the individual’s opinions as far as the government power and authority were concerned were weaker. By way of explanation, approximately 44.5 % of the individuals who responded to the survey questionnaires reported lower levels of acceptance to the fact that the Government of victoria should be mandated with Authority and power over the conservation of water while a lamp sum of 55.5 percent reported a quantifiable number of agreements to this strategy (Burningham, 2009, 13). On the other hand, when asked about the Victorian government and its environmental regulations, policies and procedures the results clearly indicated that; most individuals feel that the Victorian government does not give people a chance to express and voice their opinions in decisions regarding environmental policies (Dolnicar & Hurlimann, 2010, 360). Moreover, they also feel that the procedural justice system of the government is not fair and neutral especially when dealing with environmental and public issues. Finally, when the individuals were asked to voice their opinion on Wonthaggi desalination plant, as far as the awareness of the desalination project, 97.8 percent of individuals were aware. Additionally, when the individuals were questioned about the possible political action they can take as far as the desalination plant is concerned, most individuals strongly agreed to a petition which was followed closed by demonstration and rally participation. Conclusion Legitimacy is considered by many individuals as the fundamental property of an institution or authority that makes individuals to experience a deferred or obeyed feeling. Individuals tend to submit and cooperate to decisions and rules via an obligation sense instead via anticipation of punishment or reward. In other words, it is therefore of utmost importance to suggest that, if the government of Victoria had established a greater level of legitimacy levels, they could have had a greater chance of encouraging intrinsically motivated submission or cooperation. By way of explanation, individuals would want to comply and cooperate with a government policies and decisions owing to the fact that they believe and confidence that it is the appropriate and correct thing to do (Graymore et al, .2010, 87). Additionally, the Victorian government can establish its legitimacy in a more simple way by treating citizens using a more procedurally fair manner. As far as water restrictions rules by the government is concerned, the government did the right and the most appropriate thing by imposing rules and regulations on water usage owing to the fact that it has to protect its citizens from suffering the water shortage disaster that was experienced in the previous decades (Greenberg, 2009,1247). However, the strategies that must be employed by the government in imposing water deterrence restrictions must be agreed upon decisions by both the public and the government. In this case, the government should have consulted with the public and made judgment from hearing the voice and opinion of the public as far as the Wonthaggi desalination plant is concerned (Murphy & Cherney, 2011, 237). References ABS. (2006). 2006 Census Data. Available from www.abs.gov.au. ABS. (2007). 2006 Census Quick Stats: Wonthaggi (Urban Centre/Locality). ats&breadcrumb=PL&action=401 Australian Water Association (2010). Attitudes towards water in the Australian community- Summary report, Australian Water Association: 1-11. Burningham, K., Barnett, J., Carr, A., Clift, R. and Whermeyer, W. 2007 ‘Industrial constructions of publics and public knowledge: a qualitative investigation of practice in the UK chemicals industry’ Public Understandings of Science, 16, 23-43. Christen, K. (2005). Water Reuse: Getting Past the 'Yuck Factor', Water Environment and Technology 17(11),pp. 11-15. CSIRO (2007). Climate Change in Australia – Technical Report 2007. Retrieved From: http://climatechangeinaustralia.gov.au/technical_report.php http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/ABSNavigation/prenav/LocationSearch?co llection=Census&period=2006&areacode=UCL257400&producttype=QuickSt Retrieved from Dolnicar, S. & Hurlimann, A. (2010). Desalinated versus recycled water: What does the public think? In I. C. Escobar and A. I. Schäfer (eds), Sustainable Water for the Future: Water Recycling Versus Desalination. Amsterdam: Elsevier. 375-388. GHD & Melbourne Water Corporation (2007). Seawater Desalination Feasibility Graymore, M. L. & Wallis, A. M. (2010). Water savings or water efficiency? Water-use attitudes and behavior in rural and regional areas, International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology17 (1), pp. 84-93. Greenberg, M. R. (2009). NIMBY, CLAMP, and the location of new nuclear-related facilities: U.S. national and 11 site-specific surveys. Risk Analysis: An Official Publication Of The Society For Risk Analysis 29(9): 1242-1254. http://www.water.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/6011/B.ExecSummar Retrieved from: Study: Executive Summary. GHD Pty Ltd and Melbourne Water Corporation. y2of121.pdf Hoang, M., Bolto, B., Haskard, C., Barron, O., Gray, S. & Leslie, G. (2009). Desalination in Australia, CSIRO: Water for a Healthy Country National Research Flagship. .King, T. & Murphy, K. (2009). Procedural justice and the Australian environment: The case of the Wonthaggi water desalination plant, Public policy, 4,105-121. McLintock, P. & Byrne, E. (2010). Australia bakes through warmest decade on record. ABC News January 5 2010. Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-01-05/australia-bakes-through-warmest-decade-on- record/1198674. .Murphy, B., & Murphy, K. (2010). The Australian Tax System Survey of Tax Scheme Investors’: Survey Methodology and Preliminary Findings for the Second Stage Follow-Up. Alfred Deakin Research Institute Working Paper No. 4. Geelong: Deakin University. Murphy, K. (2004). The role of trust in nurturing compliance: a study of accused tax avoiders. Law and Human Behavior, 28, 187-209. Murphy, K. & Cherney, A. (2011). Fostering cooperation with the police: How do ethnic minorities in Australia respond to procedural justice-based policing? The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology, 44, 235-257. Murphy, K., Murphy, B., & Mearns, M. (2010). The 2009 crime, safety and policing in Australia survey: Survey methodology and preliminary findings. Alfred Deakin Research Institute Working Paper No 17. Geelong: Deakin University. Partnerships Victoria (2009). Partnerships Victoria Project Summary: Victorian Desalination Project, Capital Projects Division (a division of the Department of Sustainability and Environment) in conjunction with the Department of Treasury and Finance. Retrieved from: ://www.partnerships.vic.gov.au/CA25708500035EB6/WebObj/ProjectSum MaryforVictorianDesalinationProject/$File/Project%20Summary%20for%20Vic %20Desalination%20Project.pdf Platow M.J., Brewer G. & Eggins, R.A. (2008). Authorities’ knowledge of shared group membership and its effects on the respect-informing properties of Procedural fairness. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 44, 743–750. Ross, N. (2008). Opponents of Victorian desalination plant must pay costs. Herald Sun, 13 June 2008. Retrieved from: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/legal-bill-crushes-desal-fight/story-e6frf7kx- 1111116624558 Sunshine, J. & Tyler, T.R. (2003). The role of procedural justice and legitimacy in shaping public support for policing. Law and Society Review, 37, 513-547. Read More