protec ting and restoring watersheds 165
3. Organize a community meeting
Organize a meeting of people from all the communities in the watershed. It is
especially important to invite health workers, people responsible for water and
sanitation, landowners, business owners, and people who collect water.
Use your map or drawing to explain the problems you found. Encourage
people to share their concerns about health and discuss how problems might
be caused by water contamination, deforestation, soil erosion, and other
watershed issues. Remember to talk about both surface water and groundwater.
The goal of this discussion is to begin moving from identifying problems to
the process of solving them. As each issue is raised, ask: How could we start
solving this problem right now? Will we need technical support, money, or
other resources? Who needs to be involved?
4. Build partnerships
Meetings and watershed walks are ways to build partnerships among people
in a watershed. Organize meetings with people who live in the downstream
parts of the watershed, and other meetings with those who live upstream. Then
organize meetings with representatives from the different groups. Identify
common goals and find ways of working toward them so everyone benefits.
Partnerships can sometimes be difficult to build, especially in a large
watershed. You may have to coordinate among different local groups and also
city or legal committees. Different groups or communities will often have their
own ideas of what should happen in the watershed and may have difficulty
understanding or accepting the needs and ideas of others. Differences
in power, resources and influence can cause serious conflicts. But when
everyone’s needs and contributions are respected, not simply those of people
with wealth or status, strong partnerships can develop. Openness and honesty
in working relationships will help create trust. And if all partners are expected
to contribute to the partnership, they should also benefit from it.
A Community Guide to Environmental Health 2012