19 March 24
From classroom to community: Affinity Water launches Water Smart programme to inspire kids to become water-saving heroes.
- Affinity Water areas use approximately 157 litres per person of water every day across the region. That’s 17 litres over the national average and 47 litres over the UK target.
- As a result, we’ve launched a school programme across the Affinity Water region as part of our water-saving mission. Working with educational specialists, We Are Futures and the National Schools Partnership to provide primary schools with water-saving education materials.
- As part of the curriculum, kids were challenged to create a poster to inspire their community to save water and help protect their local streams. By entering the competition, the kids have become local water saving heroes and helped spread the important message around saving water.
With water shortages and droughts becoming a growing concern due to a changing climate and a growing population, a fresh perspective on our overall water usage is essential. A new initiative, called Water Smart from Affinity Water, is shining a spotlight on children, who are emerging as champions of water stewardship within their communities.
The Water Smart Educational Programme, which has launched in schools throughout the region aims to foster an understanding among children, their families, and the wider community about the crucial need for water conservation, offering simple yet impactful ways to make a positive change. The programme, which is part of Affinity Water’s ongoing Save our Streams programme, was jointly developed with social impact agency ‘We Are Futures’. It includes water-saving curriculum-based materials to help pupils explore and understand the importance of saving water and inspire them to make everyday changes, that will leave more in the local environment.
Children were asked to share their inspiring water smart ideas by taking part in in an exciting competition. They were invited to design a poster that could educate and encourage their local community to embrace water-saving. By engaging the younger generation, Affinity Water wants to spark early awareness about saving water, helping children safeguard water for the generations to come.
The competition has now closed, and Affinity Water is delighted to announce that the winner of its water saving competition is Rebecka, a pupil at St Teresa’s Primary School. Her design stood out amongst the entries, echoing key values and water-saving messaging. Rebecka’s winning creative design will be displayed locally on digital posters and on the side of a digibus to generate awareness surrounding this important conversation, and she has also won a water-saving garden for her school.
Director of Customer Experience at Affinity Water, Rebecca Froud, one of the judges for the competition said:
“"I was delighted to be asked to be a member of the judging panel. All of the entries were well thought through and I could see the boundless creativity and talent showcased by all of our young innovators and participants.”
“Their imaginative ideas remind us that the future is bright and filled with passion and care of our environment, amongst the next generation who are grasping the importance and value of water-saving was extremely wonderful.”
“Congratulations to the competition winner Rebecka, and a huge thank you to all participants for taking part. We very much hope they learned new information about our water resources and enjoyed being part of the initiative!"”
Alongside this Rebecka’s school, St Teresa’s Primary School, will receive a water saving garden up to the value of £5,000 designed by Joes Garden (@joesgarden.official). The five runners up schools have also won £500 each towards school supplies, with all 117 participating schools receiving a free water butt, helping them encourage water conservation and sustainable practices.
Mrs S Gavin, Acting Headteacher at St Teresa’s Primary School said: ‘The 'Water Smart' competition was introduced in assembly and open to the whole school to participate. Pupils were extremely excited to enter and promote the different ways we can all help to save water. We received over 100 entries, and I was so proud of the efforts the children had put into their posters.
As Affinity Water looks towards the future, plans are underway to expand this initiative in 2024 and beyond, with further endeavors aimed at promoting sustainable practices while safeguarding our county’s water resources!
