A community rain garden may seem like a minor contribution to the multibillion-dollar overhaul of New Jersey’s water infrastructure that experts say is needed, but it’s a start.

Rain gardens, which allow stormwater to soak into the ground rather than running off into drains and rivers, are just one of a multitude of local initiatives undertaken by groups affiliated with Jersey Water Works, a statewide collaborative that advocates for the massive task of repairing and renewing the state’s antiquated network of stormwater drains and drinking water pipes.

At the organization’s annual meeting in Newark last week, local activists committed to a new series of projects for 2019 and reflected on their achievements this year.

The nonprofit Clean Water Action, for example, spent 2018 building rain gardens in two sections of Newark, and persuading people there that their homes and streets will stop flooding if they agree to a little less blacktop and a little more permeable surface.