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Water utilities in the United States must communicatewith a variety of stakeholders, including customers,the media, boards, and citizens' groups.Often, they must disseminate negative, unpleasant, orunwelcome information about rate hikes, conservationmeasures, water source pollution, expensive infrastructureprojects, and management or ownership changes.The biggest challenge facing water providers today isfinding effective ways to convey their variety of messagesto this range of audiences.To better understand the communication practicesof US water suppliers, a national survey of 175 utilitieswas conducted to obtain hard data about the toughesttopics, toughest audiences, communication techniquesused, and utilities' perception about the success of theircommunication efforts. Survey responses indicated thatwater quality was the toughest topic and residentialcustomers were the toughest audience. Of the approximately60 communication techniques used, newsreleases were the most common. As to success, nearlythree quarters of respondents rated their communicationefforts as very or moderately successful.Statistical analysis of survey responses showed thatsuccessful communication efforts were correlated with10 principles of authentic communication: communicationmust be truthful, fundamental, comprehensive,relevant, clear, consistent, accessible, timely, compassionate,and allow feedback. By adopting these provenprinciples as best practices, water providers canbecome more effective in communicating with theirvarious constituencies on today's increasingly complexwater issues. Includes 8 references, tables, figure.
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