City of Garden City, Kansas, named recipient of SWAT Outstanding Public Engagement Award
The Customer Water Use Report program provides residents with detailed information about their water use.
FAIRFAX, VIRGINIA (Oct. 12, 2021) — The Irrigation Association has named the City of Garden City, Kansas, as the recipient of the Smart Water Application Technologies 2021 Outstanding Public Engagement Award. This award recognizes a water provider with a successful program focused on public engagement and education on smart, efficient irrigation technologies and practices.
The Customer Water Use Report program works to educate customers about water use at their property and provide tips and information to help them save water inside and outside the home. By merging the city’s Geographic Information System data with Automated Metering Infrastructure data, they are able to provide every residential address in the city with customized water-use information specific to their address. Each customer’s report compares their usage to the average usage of their neighborhood and the average usage of all water users in the city.
“Congratulations to the City of Garden City for being honored with the Outstanding Public Engagement Award for their Customer Water Use Report program,” said Deborah Hamlin, CAE, FASAE, IA CEO. “Their program that merges technologies already used by the city to provide useful information to residents about their water use is a great example of innovative thinking to develop customer engagement and promote efficient irrigation practices.”
Since starting the program, Garden City has seen consistent declines in their gallons per capita per day usage. In 2017 when the first report was sent to customers, the gallons per capita per day usage for the city was 182 gallons. In 2020, it was 162 gallons. This report has played a role in conveying the need for water conservation in the community and provided residents with tools to help improve their use of water.
The 2021 Outstanding Public Engagement Award was presented on Oct. 6 during the WaterSmart Innovations Conference and Exposition. Applications for the 2022 SWAT awards will open on Nov. 1. For more information about SWAT and the annual awards, go to www.swatirrigation.org.