Water & Wastewater Treatment

TUESDAY APRIL 1 ST 2014 WWW.WATERINDUSTRYACHIEVEMENTAWARDS.INFO HILTON BIRMINGHAM METROPOLE JOIN US FOR A NIGHT OF FUN ENTERTAINMENT, AND TO SEE WHO WILL BE THE BEES KNEES OF THE INDUSTRY'S LEADING INNOVATORS. BOOK NOW! Organised by Sponsored by WORLD WATER DAY 29 March 2014 Water & Wastewater Treatment wwtonline.co.uk O n 22 March, WaterAid is asking people to Celebrate Water as part of their annual World Water Day activities. As always, children and young people are a vital audience for the campaign. Finding new opportunities to share messages about the value of water is key to creating a generation of responsible water users. As Nsath, a 15-year-old student from Newham, London, said, "We are the ones who enjoy water, play with it and waste it and so it's important to know how valuable it is for us and for other people around the world." As part of this year's World Water Day activities, WaterAid has teamed up with green poet Martin Kizko and illustrator Nick Park to run the Poems for Water competition. Young people are invited to submit poems about what water means to them, and as part of the competition promotion, Martin will visit water company education sites around the country delivering poetry workshops for visiting schools. Educating young people – or future customers – is an ongoing priority for the water industry. Incorporating WaterAid messages into existing education programmes helps to make the link between the way we use water in the UK and water and sanitation issues in the developing world. As well as learning about what happens behind their own taps and toilets, students can learn about life for communities who don't have access to safe water and sanitation. Utility backing New programmes like Aqua Innovation, developed by Global Action Plan and rolled out by Southern Water, are challenging young people to find creative ways to practice and promote water conservation. Secondary school students are encouraged to come up with a product, service or campaign to save water and improve the sustainability of their school. Julie Carly, senior communications manager at Southern Water, believes including WaterAid's messages helps young people to think about the impact of water use beyond their immediate environment. "Partnering with WaterAid enables us to bring their knowledge to the programme and ensure the students see the bigger global picture," she says. At Welsh Water's replica Ugandan village, (a finalist in the Water Industry Achievement Awards 2014, see page 25), schoolchildren can try collecting water from a hand pump and have a go at carrying heavy jerry cans from the water source to their 'village'. Practical learning opportunities like these really bring water messages to life and make young people realise how lucky they are to turn on a tap and get clean water. Curriculum-based activities from WaterAid's Water Resource pack are also reinforcing messages about saving and valuing water. The lesson plans and resources are designed to encourage young people to think about ways they can save water, and show how WaterAid's work is transforming lives by providing access to safe water and good sanitation. A cross-company education forum helps to coordinate education activities across the water sector and provides opportunities for WaterAid and water company education teams to share ideas and resources and continue to work together closely. Anne Reed, Yorkshire Water's education and volunteer adviser, chairs the group: "The forum is a great opportunity to meet our peers and discuss a range of education issues. It also helps individual companies to benchmark their education programmes against the rest of the industry. "It's a given that WaterAid is part of this network. Our education messages are so closely aligned and working with them on initiatives like the Poems for Water competition helps to give our education programmes a global dimension." ■■■ To find out more about the Poems for Water competition or WaterAid's wider schools programme, visit www.wateraid.org/schools. For ways to get involved in World Water Day activities, visit www.wateraid.org/uk/ worldwaterday. Water utilities in the UK are partnering WaterAid to widen awareness and deliver conservation messages to children and young people. WaterAid's education officer, Maria Georgiou, shares some of the learning Water learning for customers of the future School children enjoying practical water lessons at Yorkshire Water's Esholt Environmental Visitors Centre O people to Celebrate Water as part of their annual World Water Day

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