Springer Memorial today welcomed a bottleless water station.
The Barbados Public Workers’ Cooperative Credit Union (BPWCCUL) has partnered with Newport Systems Inc. to launch its ‘Hydrate Barbados’ campaign. The initiative, which aims to provide an eco-friendly hydration solution in Barbados launched with an installation of the water station, branded by BPWCCU at the Government Hill, St Michael institution today.
Springer’s Principal Mitchelle Maxwell said students were encouraged to incorporate water into their everyday culture. She said the school recognized Wednesday as water day every week.
“Here, we continue to build out as a community school of practice and purpose and this was a wonderful opportunity for Newport Water to come on board to support what we are doing here at the school,” Maxwell said.
Managing Director of Newport Water Shawn Gibbons said at a time when childhood diabetes and obesity have reached alarming rates in Barbados, his company saw the need to play a role in arresting the figures.
He said while drinking water would stem this tide, it is typically available only in a plastic bottle. He said it was unfortunate, but drinks with high sugar content are more accessible to the nation’s children than pure drinking water.
“Newport Water, a local industry leader in water provisioning, has come to the rescue with the launch of ‘Hydrate Barbados’. This initiative facilitates partnerships between Newport and corporate Barbados to deliver business-branded water stations. This option eclipses the traditional water fountain, which tends to produce water varying in taste and temperature and is often the victim of vandalism and maintenance challenges. Also eliminated will be the environmentally unfriendly use of plastic bottles,” Gibbons said.
Two schools have already received results from the initiative and 1, 000 more students at Springer Memorial have joined the group.
Marketing Assistant at the BPWCCUL Stacy Mottley said the partnership was even more ideal as the Credit Union has a strong relationship with Springer Memorial with its school-run Credit Union branch through their Thrift Club School Savers Program.
She said sponsoring the innovative initiative would uphold that bond in the aim to support student well-being and government initiatives such as Childhood Obesity Prevention and non-communicable disease prevention in adolescent children.
The St Michael School would be the second institution to benefit from Newport and BPWCCUL’s partnership as a bottleless water station will also be installed at that school. anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb
