Our Vision

The Water Collaborative envisions an inclusive network of communities who work to make sure our world is climate resilient with New Orleans a leader in rights based water management.

Origins of The Water Collaborative

Awareness of the issues and opportunities relating to water management in the Greater New Orleans area began to build in the early 2010s. Sample activities and initiatives from this time include:

• Regular meetings of the Horizon Initiative’s Water Committee, convened by Grasshopper Mendoza and Steve Picou;

• A series of reports on water management commissioned by the Citizen’s Task Force and completed by Jeff Thomas of Thomas Strategies;

• A group of organizations and activists convened by Bayou Rebirth to strategize responding to the New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board’s request-for-proposals for green infrastructure projects;

• Meetings of the key water management specialists and activists convened by the Greater New Orleans Foundation;

• The Louisiana Urban Stormwater Coalition convened by landscape architect Dana Brown of Dana Brown & Associates.

A Grassroots Movement

Probably the largest and most visible activity was the development of the Greater New Orleans Urban Water Plan. This project was funded by the State of the Louisiana via Greater New Orleans Inc., and coordinated by the local architectural and planning firm Waggoner & Ball. The project was overseen by a large Steering Committee, and its main component was what was known as the Dutch Dialogues (initially launched in 2006 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina), through which considerable expert input was provided by leading water management specialists from the Netherlands. The final Urban Water Plan, a large, comprehensive document, was released in October 2013.

Following the release of the Urban Water Plan, several local organizations began having regular conversations about how to move forward on water management in the Greater New Orleans area in a more coordinated and systematic way. This group included Jonathan Henderson and Cyn Sarthou of the Gulf Restoration Network, Keith Twitchell of Committee for a Better New Orleans (CBNO), Dana Eness of the Urban Conservancy, and Jeff Thomas of Thomas Strategies, among others. Working in part under the rubric of FloodLess New Orleans, there were some initial policy research and community awareness activities undertaken, but the need for greater cohesion within the growing regional constituency of individuals and organizations concerned with water management issues became apparent. At about the same time, a second group of organizations and individuals also came together to explore ways to address water management concerns and opportunities in a unified, coordinated way. Among this group were Aron Chang of Waggoner & Ball, Jen Roberts then of Water Works, Jeff Supak of Global Green, Miriam Beblidia of Water Works, and Meredith Cherney of the Urban Conservancy. Keith Twitchell of CBNO was also part of this conversation; having served on the Steering Committee for the Urban Water Plan, CBNO had taken on water management as a core organizational priority. In early 2014, CBNO led the way in bringing these two sets of conversations together. The need to coalesce in a more organized structure became apparent quickly, and the people previously named became the Interim Steering Committee (ISC) for this effort Further discussion within the ISC, as well as conversations with additional colleagues, led to a large convening in May 2014. The ISC proposed a tentative structure of Working Groups and a permanent Steering Committee, along with a preliminary vision statement for the nascent Greater New Orleans Water Collaborative. In-depth discussion at this convening confirmed the essential direction of the ISC’s initial concepts and approach. As a follow-up to the May meeting, the ISC refined the vision statement and the overall structure of the Collaborative. Two follow-up meetings were held in June, leading to a preliminary design for the Greater New Orleans Water Collaborative. The Collaborative’s formal launch took place in September 2014 at a press conference by Bayou St. John, followed by a reception at Parkway Bakery and Tavern. This launch came with the understanding that considerably more work was needed to finalize the organizational structure, fully operationalize the Working Groups, and chart a course for the sustainability and organizational effectiveness of the Collaborative.