Community Development in Perth: Solving Water Pollution Issues

The paper revolves around the community problem which the people in Perth are facing due to water pollution. The community development program would include local government of the city of Stirling, the body corporates, the medical facilities and the people residing in the suburb. The community development program on the macro level would follow the environmental protection plan undertaken by the Department of Environment and Energy, Government of Australia. The program would have three main stages or sections namely, community scan revolving around Perth, planning decision and implementation. The program would follow the asset based community development approach or the ABCD approach.

Running head: COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT IN PERTH
Community Development in Perth
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT IN PERTH
Table of Contents
Executive summary:........................................................................................................................3
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................3
Methodology:...................................................................................................................................4
Discussion:.......................................................................................................................................5
Community scan:.............................................................................................................................5
Description of the community:....................................................................................................5
Locality of Perth:.........................................................................................................................5
Problems:.....................................................................................................................................6
Planning decisions:..........................................................................................................................7
Appropriate community development approach:........................................................................7
Stakeholders of community development plan:..........................................................................8
Government:................................................................................................................................8
Body corporates:..........................................................................................................................9
Financial institutions:...................................................................................................................9
Society:......................................................................................................................................10
Engagement strategy:.....................................................................................................................10
Implementation:.............................................................................................................................11
Prediction and measurable outcomes:.......................................................................................11
Timeline/budget:........................................................................................................................11
Conclusion:....................................................................................................................................11
Recommendation 1:...................................................................................................................12
Recommendation 2:...................................................................................................................12
References bibliography:...............................................................................................................13

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COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT IN PERTH
Executive summary:
Community development plans are organized and executed to solve specific problems pertaining
to environment and other complex areas. The paper revolves around the community problem
which the people in Perth are facing due to water pollution. The problem is aggravated due to
changing rainfall patterns and drought like conditions. It is evident that the solution to the
solution to the issue would involve participation of large number of stakeholders like
government, body corporates and the society. The researcher has shown how these stakeholder
groups can be involved in finding out sustainable solution to the issue following the ABCD
method.
Introduction:
Perth, one of the largest and the richest cities in Australia but suffers from several
environmental problems which are impacting its population, especially in the suburbs like
Stirling very badly. The environmental issues consist of degeneration of water resources and
falling quality of drinking water, two issues which are impacting the health of the people living
in the suburbs. The aim of the paper would be to develop a community program in the Stirling
suburban areas to enable the people fight these issues. The community development program
would include local government of the city of Stirling, the body corporates, the medical facilities
and the people residing in the suburb. The significance of the community development program
would lie in helping the communities living in the area deal with these environmental problems
and reduce the diseases which they suffer from due to poor water quality and drainage problem.
The community development program on the macro level would follow the environmental
protection plan undertaken by the Department of Environment and Energy, Government of
Australia (environment.gov.au, 2018). The program at federal level would be proceed under
guidance of Parliament of Australia (aph.gov.au, 2018). The dimension of the plan would
envelop a variety of conservation activities and waste management activities which would go
towards improving the water resources and sanitation conditions the people of Perth are face.
The program would have three main stages or sections namely, community scan revolving
around Perth, planning decision and implementation. The program would follow the asset based
community development approach or the ABCD approach.

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Methodology:
An in depth study of Perth would reveal that the region has experienced economic boom
due to mining and industrial development. However, consultation with local people would point
that there is increasing income inequality in the area leading to rising poverty. The reports
published by the Supreme Court of Western Australia also pointed out to lowering income
among poor families and their inability to acquire proper accommodation (supremecourt.wa.gov,
2018). The mining sector in the region results releases huge amount of wastes, both liquid and
solid which ultimately degenerates the water resources and quality in the region. The huge
number of poor people who cannot afford expensive water purifiers are the worst affected due to
this poor water quality (abc.net.au, 2018). One can observe that the problem can be encountered
or at least reduced by launching community development program. The community development
program would as a result aim to achieve betterment in the sanitation conditions by taking
appropriate environmental conservation measures. It would also stress on the ethical
responsibility of the stakeholders like the government, the industries in the area and the local
people to work towards conserving the environment of Perth (Haque et al. 2014).
Discussion:
Community scan:
Description of the community:
The community that the community development program would serve can be defined as
the government, industries and the people of Stirling. The boundary of the project would include
the entire city of Perth (Mota et al., 2015).
Locality of Perth:
Perth is situated in western part of Australia with a large portion of it in the Swan Coastal
Plain. The region is surrounded by the mighty Indian Ocean and the Darling Range. The area
along the Swan River contains the booming Central Business District which accounts for the
economic development of Perth and also for the degeneration in the water quality in the area.

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COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT IN PERTH
Figure 1.Map showing city of Perth
(Source: perth.wa.gov.au, 2018)
Problems:
Perth is experiencing changing rainfall patterns which is also impacting its water quality.
The main sources of drinking water are ground water and rain-fed reservoirs. The changing
pattern of rain is resulting in droughts and poor quality of drinking water available. These
geographical conditions of Perth clearly shows that the marine pollution has serious impact on
the water resources in the area like the Swan River. This serious problem of degenerating water
conditions is lead to the second problem, wide spread diseases among the people, especially the
poor people living in the suburbs (Perignon et al., 2017).

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COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT IN PERTH
Figure 2. Table showing number of deaths in Western Australia
(Source: stat.data.abs.gov.au, 2018)
The table above shows that the number of deaths in Western Australia including Perth are
showing an increase. This figure can be coupled with the increasing pollution and poverty in
Perth. Thus, it can be justified from the discussion that the community development program
would aim to bring about improvement in the water conditions in Perth to bring down the death
amount (Klemes, 2015).
Planning decisions:
Appropriate community development approach:
The community development program in Perth would take asset based community
development or asset based community development approach. The approach emphasizes on the
potential or the assets available in a particular community to deal with an issue it is facing
(Green & Haines, 2015). The main characteristics of the ABCD approach are as follows:
1. The approach focuses on the strengths and resources of a particular community.
2. The community or the stakeholders play significant role in the area.

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COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT IN PERTH
3. The ABCD approach is driven by relationships.
The approach is used to deal with complex environmental problems like climate change
because it involves the several groups of stakeholder (newcastle.edu.au, 2018). The approach
involves the stakeholder groups collaborating and sharing the resources available to find out
sustainable solutions to the problems. These stakeholder groups consist of government bodies,
corporate bodies, non-profit making organizations and the public in general (Duan et al, 2017).
Stakeholders of community development plan:
The following are the main stakeholders which the community development program
would include:
Government:
The asset based community development approach is usually applied to deal with
situations which are complex and requires immense planning. These situations also require
immense capital mobilization since they are required to deal with complex problems like
environmental challenges. The community development under study which seeks to deal with
the threat of degrading water conditions in Perth and resultant deaths among the local community
would require collaboration of corporates and the people. The government bodies the most
effective organizations which can gain participation from both these stakeholders. The Perth
community development program would include the government at three stages. The central
Government of Australia, the state government of Western Australia and the local government of
Perth. The government would have to play leading role in making the plan of the community
development in collaboration with the other stakeholders. The project would proceed according
to the environmental laws and policies like the Environment Protection and Biodiversity
Conservation Act 1999 made by the government, thus once again making the later the key
stakeholder to the project (environment.gov.au, 2018).
Body corporates:
The business organizations having their operations in and around Perth would require to
contribute towards the success of the community development program. These industrial
organizations are the causes of large scale water pollution owing to their manufacturing and
mining operations. They sell their products in Perth and other markets which account for their
revenue generation. They get a part of their workforces from the region of Perth. They harness

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the resources of Perth like mineral resources and agricultural produce to continue their
manufacturing operations. These factors make them ethically obliged to participate towards
conservation of environment of Perth. Thus, the business organizations having their operations in
and around Perth have to participate in the community development operations. They have
immense knowledge about environment conservation and thus can contribute towards the
success of the project (Cayan, et al., 2016).
Financial institutions:
The community development in question revolving around improvement of water
conditions in the Perth region would require mobilization of financial capital. This calls for
involvement of banks in the community development programs. The banks like the other
business organizations sell their banking products in the region of Perth to generate revenue.
They also get a portion of their human resources and investors from Perth, which is one of the
most prosperous cities in Australia. These factors just like the business organizations place
ethical obligations on the banks to channelize capital towards the project (Watts et al., 2015).
Society:
The problem of the degenerating water quality in the Perth is impacting the local
pollution of the area. This need of the society would form the basis of the project. The analysis
above appears to show that society plays a less important role as a stakeholder but it is not so.
The support of the people of the society provides the base to the government on which the later
stands and functions. The society is capable of jeopardizing or at least challenging the operations
of the business organizations by filing legal cases against them. Thus, the society is the
shareholder at the crux and helm of the project (Schaltegger, Hansen & Lüdeke-Freund, 2016).
Engagement strategy:
The engagement strategy of the Perth community development program would be
initiated by the government. The government bodies should conduct tests to find out actual
condition of ground water in the Perth region, particularly in the suburbs. The bodies should
submit a report to the Ministry of Environment, Government of Australia along with the
proposed steps which can be taken. The finance department of the ministry should then prepare a
budget as to the possible expenditure towards resources which would be spend to implement the
budget. The budget after being approved by the concerned ministry should be sent to the banks.

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COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT IN PERTH
The government should then ask for support from the body corporates in terms of technological
strengths and knowledge. The government would also require support of the society or the
people in general. This is because at the grass root level, the project would require measures like
planting of trees and not polluting the water resources. This shows that the engagement strategy
of community development project in Perth would initially start with the government and then
finally engage the entire society towards its success (Duan et al, 2017).
Implementation:
Prediction and measurable outcomes:
One can predict that the stakeholder groups recognized above would contribute positively
towards the Perth community development project. The involvement of the government would
have two impacts as far as the project is concerned. First, the people would have faith in the
project owing to the involvement of the government and second, that banks and financial
institutions would consider the project profitable (environment.gov.au, 2018).
The outcomes of the project would be improvement in the quality of water available in
Perth. The second outcome of the project would be fall in death rates in Perth pertaining to the
polluted water.
Timeline/budget:
The project would involve allocation of budget as discussed above. The budget would
involve allocation of material and human resources towards the project. The government can
involve the other stakeholders in sharing the expenses.
Conclusion:
One can conclude from the discussion that the community development program using
the ABCD model would prove helpful in solving the social problems. The government should
play significant role in ensuring involvement of financial institutions, body corporates and the
society as a whole to execute the project. The following are the recommendations which can be
made concerning the project:

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COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT IN PERTH
Recommendation 1:
The discussion clearly mentions involvement of governments within Australia and
corporates functioning in and around Perth. However, it can be recommended that the project
should also involve international organizations like the UNESCO and also companies from other
regions of Australia. This large scale involvement is capable of offering the project more
support, thus making it more sustainable.
Recommendation 2:
It can be recommended that the project should be executed to bring about developments
in the water conditions in Perth to benefit the poor who cannot afford purifiers. It should be
executed as a mere part of corporate social responsibilities of companies.

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(2016). Natural variability, anthropogenic climate change, and impacts on water
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