In school
We're urged to be efficient in all walks of life: use less fuel, use less energy, recycle waste - but what about 'use less water?' Many people are unaware that we really do need to think about this as well. School is the perfect place to start teaching our future generation about how to look after our water supply.
School Retrofit Programme
In 2009 Severn Trent Water ran an innovative programme to help primary and secondary schools in the region achieve water efficiency savings. The programme took place in Leicestershire, Coventry, Worcestershire and Telford and Wrekin.
Following a water audit and meter reads, our contractors provided recommendations for schools. Once these recommendations were approved by the school, our contractors installed various items of equipment to improve the school's water efficiency. The equipment installed included: urinal controls, water efficient taps and retrofit dual flush toilets.
After a period of approximately four weeks, we took more meter readings, in order to prepare a summary report. The report included the school's water usage data with recommendations for further work and maintenance advice. Hopefully, the schools will benefit from reduced water bills and can work towards Eco-School status.
512 sites had water efficiency products installed resulting in an average water consumption reduction of 25%. Overall across all sites 284 million litres of water a year has been saved.
Educational resources
Alongside the installation programme, we've developed a range of resources and activities to help schools integrate water efficiency messages into the curriculum. These can be used by any school, not only those participating in the Retrofit Programme.
For younger children we have developed some fun activities related to water efficiency. We have colouring in sheets, dot to dot pages and a picture and word recognition activity.
For children aged 7 to 11, try using the Environmental Promise activity. To complement this, there is a self led assembly for Key Stage 2 pupils. This Severn Trent Water resource aims to encourage and assist teachers to have their class lead an assembly on water efficiency.
There is also a self led assembly for students aged 11 to 16 focusing on promoting water efficiency with supporting photographs in various formats. For older children and adult groups, download and print copies of the Water footprint poster to encourage your group to try our home water audit. There is a school water audit too - see how you can save water, and possibly money as well!
We hope that you will find these resources helpful and that you will work with us to try to change how people think and behave when it comes to saving water.
