Tissa Liyanage and Vajira Samarasinghe from the Lak Saviya Foundation with the Hon. Nathan Rees MP
45 Sri Lankan and Chinese community volunteers were commended by the NSW Minister for Water Utilities, Nathan Rees, at a special event on 25 February 2008 for encouraging and promoting water saving in households among their communities.
Over the past nine months these ambassadors have donated their time and effort to educate more than 2,600 people about the water cycle and why and how to save water.
The ambassadors have delivered numerous presentations to Tzu Chi and the Lak Saviya Foundation events and held information stalls at shopping centres and local festivals, as well as speaking one-on-one with their peers.
The water ambassadors are recruited and trained by the Ethnic Communities' Council of NSW (ECC) Home Water Action Program funded by the NSW Government’s Water for Life program. The ambassadors promote simple and practical ways to live sustainably, such as saving water by having shorter showers, using a bucket to wash their cars and participating in water savings programs.
DECC Ethnic Communities Sustainable Living Project Officer, Kylie Walker said the sense of ownership the water ambassadors feel about the sustainability message is inspiring and their enthusiasm is infectious.
Ms Walker's sentiment is reflected by Lak Saviya Foundation Water Ambassador Co-ordinator, Vajira Samarasinghe, who commented that the messages developed by ethnic community members, for their community are more meaningful and have far greater impact.
Partners in the Home Water Action Program include the ECC, DECC, the Department of Water and Energy, and Sydney Water.
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