Bringing Water into Focus: Water Stewardship at the Heart of Community Action

by Sandra Hall

This year’s Australian National Water Week theme, “Bring Water into Focus”, is a powerful call to action. It encourages all Australians to look beyond water as just a resource and see it as the invisible thread connecting homes, schools, businesses, and communities. Across the Asia-Pacific region, communities are demonstrating how Water Stewardship provides the framework to make this vision real.

From rural irrigation communities in South Australia, to villages in Indonesia, and industrial hubs in Vietnam, water stewardship is helping people build resilience, regenerate ecosystems, and improve community well-being.

In South Australia’s Riverland region, the Renmark Irrigation Trust (RIT) is a world leader in using water stewardship to connect community, environment, and agriculture.

Established in 1893, RIT is Australia’s oldest surviving irrigation trust. During the Millennium Drought, severe water scarcity forced irrigators, community leaders, and government agencies to rethink how they managed their most precious resource. In 2009, RIT adopted a bold vision to become Australia’s leading water resource manager by 2020, aligning with the internationally recognised Water Stewardship Standard.

RIT pioneered dual water use, supplying both irrigation customers and the environment through an innovative partnership with the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder (CEWH). From 2017 to 2025, the Trust has delivered over 2.5 GL to thirteen sites, inundating 125.2 hectares, to rehabilitate wetlands and floodplains, supporting native vegetation, boosting biodiversity, and reconnecting the community to their river landscapes.

The approach goes beyond engineering. RIT actively involves irrigators, environmental agencies, local government, and community groups in water planning, data collection, and environmental monitoring. This collaborative stewardship model has built trust, improved transparency, and fostered a shared sense of responsibility for the health of the Murray River.

RIT’s stewardship model has built transparency, trust, and shared responsibility across irrigators, government, and community. It has earned Gold and Platinum Water Stewardship certification, the first irrigation scheme in the world to do so, and created real local benefits through healthier landscapes, education opportunities, and tourism.

In Vietnam, water stewardship is helping communities and businesses adapt to rapid development and climate change. La Vie, a leading bottled natural mineral water company, recognised that its long-term success depended on the health and sustainability of shared water resources.

Working with experts, La Vie identified serious challenges in the basin, including climate change impacts, over-abstraction of groundwater, and increasing demand from urbanisation and agriculture. Rather than acting alone, La Vie adopted the International Water Stewardship Standard, becoming the first certified business in Vietnam.

The company has committed to regenerating more water than it uses by 2025. Its stewardship actions include:

• Installing filtration systems in 28 rural schools, reaching more than 10,000 students and staff.
• Supporting rainwater harvesting in drought-affected areas, reducing underground water use by 2 million litres annually.
• Helping local businesses save over 20 million litres annually through water recycling initiatives.
• Partnering with Long An Water Supply Company to expand surface water treatment and clean water supply to an additional 150,000 households, while reducing groundwater extraction and stabalising groundwater levels.

La Vie’s actions go beyond compliance–they embody a regenerative, collective approach to water stewardship that improves water security for both the company and the wider community.

In Kutamaneuh Village, Karawang, West Java, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners Indonesia (CCEP Indonesia) has launched the WAWASAN Nusantara Program, that integrates community-based water stewardship with waste management, nutrition, and livelihood development as a holistic approach to local community empowerment.

Building on the earlier WASH+ initiative, WAWASAN Nusantara begins with a comprehensive village-level census of approximately 1,200 households to identify water, sanitation, and hygiene, and waste management challenges. The program works with communities to co-design solutions that respond to their priorities and local context.

The program has achieved measurable results. Nearly 90% of households that previously practiced open defecation now have access to proper sanitation facilities, benefiting approximately 240 households. The initiative is contributing over 50 million liters of water replenishment annually to the environment and community.

A key innovation is the integration of water treatment and recycling systems, where wastewater is treated and recycled for home gardens and household agriculture. This is helping to improve water efficiency while enhancing food security and nutrition for participating families.

Building local capacity is central to the program’s approach. Over 250 community members have received training in hygiene, nutrition, waste management, and small business development, with more than 100 completing training-of-trainers programs. This enables them to sustain knowledge transfer long after the program implementation phase. By integrating these elements, the program is working to create multiple community benefits.

Village officials have been trained in budget planning and proposal development, equipping them with skills to potentially secure additional resources for water and sanitation infrastructure from government funding sources. This governance component supports long-term program sustainability.

Early results suggest clear benefits as communities are gaining better access to clean water and sanitation, developing skills that may create alternative income sources over time, improving local food production, and strengthening resilience to future challenges.

These stories share a common thread: water stewardship acts as an important enabler of community action by bringing communities, businesses, and governments together around shared water challenges.

By combining evidence, collaboration, capacity building, and environmental regeneration, stewardship turns water issues into practical, community-led solutions.

This National Water Week, as we bring water into focus, these case studies show the power of stewardship to connect people, protect ecosystems, and create thriving communities, not just for today, but for generations to come.