Following the endorsement of WIOA’s first Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Action Plan in May 2024, WIOA decided to run a seminar in a First Nation region. As part of WIOA’s 3-year Growth Strategy, this CSR Action plan aims to support First Nations regions through the provision of additional resources, training and networking opportunities to aid the development and operations of their remote water systems and services.
In early June, WIOA’s CEO Dean Barnett attended the 2024 Queensland Indigenous Local Government Drinking Water Symposium on Thursday Island to support and implement this new initiative.
The 3-day symposium was run by Queensland Health and hosted by Torres Shire Council covering all aspects of supplying a safe drinking water service – from raw water quality and risk assessments to water treatment technologies, distribution maintenance and regulation
Dean’s seminar included the distribution of WIOA’s Practical Guide to the Operation and Optimisation of Distribution Systems to approximately 50 indigenous and remote water and wastewater operations staff, that deliver services to remote communities across Far North Queensland as well as an interactive activity where the shared knowledge of Indigenous water operators was used to complete a risk assessment of drinking water services.
WIOA also extended an invitation to an indigenous operator from the symposium, to attend the 2024 WIOA Queensland Conference and Expo held in the Sunshine Coast the following month. With a full delegate pass, this operator was able to access 2-days of special speaker and poster presentations delivered by water specialists within the Queensland water industry as well as visit the expo hall of over 100 exhibitors.
