Becoming water smart

School children and teachers of the Bright Eye Edu-Centre in Barbados participated in a special water-saving session organised by the education arm of UK based Water Saving Hub that supplies water-saving devices to the Caribbean. The session was part of activities being held in the lead up to International World Water Week (25-30 August) and its theme of youth engagement.

Children of the August summer school were given fun, interactive lessons on personal usage of water, and left with a greater understanding of water waste and how to cut down on every day water usage. As one participant stated, “My daddy leaves the tap running when he brushes his teeth”. Children developed a positive attitude that water is a universal need and a precious natural resource and armed themselves with water saving tips for their daily family usage.

Representatives of Water Saving Hub were visiting Barbados as part of a drive to promote water conservation activities particularly among students. The organisation supplies highly efficient water saving devices and will also be seeking eco-tourism partnerships with key businesses and hotels with the objective of galvanising the tourism industry to be more water efficient as demand increases.

Founder of Water Saving Hub Jackie G Michaels said, “We have been overwhelmed by the welcome here on the island and impressed by the attitude of children who are already empowered to learn about protecting their most important natural resource. It is a fact that a sustainable supply of water is a major challenge across developing countries with Barbados ranked 15th in terms of its water scarcity. Even if 1, 000 school children in Barbados actually saved one litre a day as part of their family and school usage, that would mean 1, 000 litres of water per day saved collectively. With innovative methods of water conservation, this would present an even bigger saving.”

Manufactured in Europe, the water-saving technology from Water Saving Hub offers a new era in delivering just the right amount of water when showering and hand-washing. The devices are easily fitted onto most modern taps and showers, hot and cold including mixers, saving over 70 per cent of the water used from that tap. In technical terms, they reduce average flow from an average of 6-10 litres per minute down to 1.7 litres per minute.

The current range of water saving products for the Caribbean includes 1.7 L/min and 4.0 L/min Single Tap Retrofits, Water Saving Taps and Water Saving Shower Heads. With the region ranked amongst the countries with extremely high levels of baseline water stress, Water Saving Hub aims to work alongside companies, consumers, schools and businesses throughout the Caribbean to supply and educate communities to see water as a valuable commodity.  Its mission is to create a water smart Caribbean adhering to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and in particular SDG6. (PR)