More than 1,400 primary school children from across the South East joined an Isle of Wight-based webinar marking World Water Day.
The online event was hosted at Wildheart Animal Sanctuary, with the session taking place beside the site’s bear enclosure.
Pupils taking part learned about where water comes from, how the water cycle works and the importance of adopting sustainable water-saving habits in everyday life.
The Sanctuary itself provided a real-world example of sustainability in action, with its bear pond supplied by rainwater harvested from the café roof.
Lawrence Bates, CEO of Wildheart Animal Sanctuary, said:
“The rainwater harvesting system means we can reuse rainwater elsewhere around the Sanctuary, cutting down our costs and putting that money into what really matters – the welfare of the animals we rescue.”
As part of the initiative, Southern Water has also installed a Sustainable Drainage Scheme (SuDS) ‘Safari’ at the site. This system collects rainwater from higher ground and uses gravity to feed a series of features, including a rainwater curtain, a children’s mud kitchen and a wetland planting area. Permeable pathways have also been introduced to help manage surface water.
Kim Twine, Southern Water’s Education Partnerships and Programmes Manager, said:
“Our aim is to raise children’s awareness of how precious our resource of water is and to empower them to make small behaviour changes to ensure water resilience for the future.
“We were so pleased to be able to hold the webinar at the Sanctuary, seeing sustainable practice in action helps to bring the message to life for the children. Plus, the bears coming out to play during the webinar made it a truly memorable session for all involved.”
The webinar forms part of Southern Water’s ‘New Wave’ education programme, which offers downloadable resources for teachers, in-school sessions and outdoor learning experiences such as the ‘Our River, Our Water’ initiative delivered by The Rivers Trust.
Over the past year, more than 105,000 young people have taken part in Southern Water’s education programmes, including a series of free online assemblies linked to key environmental awareness dates.
Southern Water have more front than Blackpool
Lol
They are a fine one to preach about water.
Cheaper bills would be a better idea!