The Garden City Water Department was recently awarded the 2021 Smart Water Application Technologies Outstanding Public Engagement Award for the city’s customer water use report.
The report educates customers on their water use and shows how their use compares to other water customers in the community.
Before this program, customers were generally uninformed regarding their water consumption, aside from paying the cost of their water bills.
Customers were also generally uninformed regarding the quantity of water used and how much water is used for irrigation purposes.
The data is presented to customers in terms of percentage above or below average and how many dollars they are potentially spending and/or saving based on their current practices. That information is then used to promote other activities such as sprinkler check-ups or to encourage customers to participate in the city’s WaterSense Irrigation Controller Rebate program, which reimburses customers up to $150 to offset the cost to install a WaterSense Certified Irrigation Controller.