Clarence Valley Shire Council Recognised Globally

Congratulations to Clarence Valley Council for receiving a Grand Honour Award in the Planning Category at the 2014 IWA Global Project Innovations Awards (PIA). Clarence Valley Council, with its project partners NSW Office of Water, NSW Public Works and Sustainable Futures Australia, has received this prestigious global award for its innovative planning and development of the Iluka Sewerage Scheme. The Iluka Sewerage Scheme previously won the regional Asia-Pacific PIA competition in the same category and announced in Singapore. 

The town of Iluka was the largest unsewered town in NSW and Clarence Valley Council found that providing reticulated sewerage faced many challenges. The community was polarised as to whether a centralised sewerage scheme should be provided in what is considered a sensitive environmental area that includes the Gondwana Rainforests, a World Heritage listed area.

To overcome the polarisation of the community and to ensure that an affordable sewerage scheme was developed an innovative community participation and decision making methodology called “Dealing with our own Situation” (DWOOS)^TM  was adopted. A community committee developed a sewerage strategy addressing the stringent environmental requirements, and continued to provide feedback to designers and construction contractors during the design and construction phases, while also informing the Iluka community on scheme progress.

The Iluka Sewerage Scheme was completed under its original budget despite project delays and it is an excellent demonstration of effective partnerships between government agencies, local government, contractors and the community. The IWA Project Innovation Awards are part of a larger effort be the IWA to foster innovation in the water sector, from inventions to demonstrating large scale applications. 

A representative of Clarence Valley Council, Mr Greg Mashiah, will be travelling to Lisbon in Portugal to receive this award on Wednesday 24 September 2014. Congratulations to Clarence Valley Council and its project partners on their outstanding delivery of this innovation project.