15 June 2010
Water Amnesty pumps savings into charity
Water conscious students and staff at the University of Sheffield have raised £10,643 to help provide clean water to communities in Africa, after a Water Amnesty campaign encouraged people to turn off their taps and consider their water footprint.
The campaign, which kicked off last October, prompted staff and students to think differently about the precious resource, in order to help reduce water consumption in the University, its Union and residences.
As a result, from the beginning of Water Amnesty Month (October 2009) until April 2010, water consumption at the University plummeted by nine per cent compared to the 2008/09 period.
As part of the scheme, the University pledged to pass on 40 per cent of the money it saved on its annual water bill for the non-residential campus to The One Foundation. This is a charity that is funded by the sales of One Water mineral water and which donates 100 per cent of its profits to funding PlayPumps that provide clean water to communities in Africa. The £10,643 saved will now be used to fund more pumps, which take the form of a merry-go-round and bring water to a storage tank which then feeds a tap when children spin on the pump.
Throughout the scheme, staff and students were offered top tips on how to save water, including turning taps off while brushing teeth, opting for showers instead of baths and using the minimum amount of water required to boil water in saucepans and kettles.
Inspired by the tips, staff and students were able to log-on to the University´s specially designed Water Amnesty website, www.shef.ac.uk/water-amnesty, where they could read more about the project and jot down their saving tips in their own PDF downloadable Water Diary, as well as an interactive online version. iPhone users were also able to download a Water Amnesty application to their phone to keep up-to-date with the project.
The University also implemented almost 1,000 water saving devices in 2002, which resulted in total water consumption falling by more than a third in the first year – a saving of £40,000 in just four months. These devices included toilet cistern dams to reduce the volume of water used by around a third and flow regulators on taps to restrict the flow of water and urinal controls to regulate the amount of water used during flushing. Push taps with adjustable flow rates were also fitted to replace screw head taps, making sure taps could not be left running, and new sub-meters were installed around the campus to help the University closely monitor consumption in some of its largest buildings.
The Water Amnesty scheme therefore marks a continuation in the University´s commitment to reducing its water footprint, while helping those in need. Currently, over one billion people in the world do not have access to clean water and 5,000 children die per day through a lack of clean water.
Professor Tony Ryan, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Science at the University of Sheffield, said: "In studying water issues, we´ve found that `water work is women´s work.´ The most satisfying outcome for me is that providing a pump to a village means that more girls get to go to school, so as well as providing water, the work we have done facilitates education."
Philip Riley, Energy Manager at the University of Sheffield, said: "Effective water management is a priority for the University as an environmentally-conscious organisation. Our staff and students have worked hard to minimise water consumption, and I am delighted that this will help improve access to safe drinking water projects in Africa."
Duncan Goose, founder of The One Foundation, said: "It´s an incredible achievement and one, that if replicated by all students in the UK, would provide about £865,000 a year to fund clean water projects in developing countries – that would be enough to give around 250,000 people a free, clean, sustainable water supply and enable kids to go to school rather than walk an average of five hours a day collecting water. The students and staff of the University have done something quite inspiring and set the benchmark very high for everyone else in the UK."
Notes for Editors: For more information on Water Amnesty at the University of Sheffield, visit the link below.
The University of Sheffield is one of four Universities within the Free Radicals group taking part in Water Amnesty. Free Radicals is made up of the Helen Storey Foundation, a not-for-profit arts organization promoting creativity and innovation and a growing group of academics across four Universities, all of whom are intent on thinking differently about answers to key world problems. The other Universities within Free Radicals are London College of Fashion, the University of Ulster and the University of Westminster. For more information about Free Radicals, visit the link below.
One Water, the brand which funds The One Foundation, was founded in 2004 and is an ethical bottled water company that dedicates 100 per cent of its profits to funding unique roundabout PlayPump community water projects across Africa. For more information, visit the link below.
The University has already received recognition for its water efficiency after winning the Green Gown Award for Water Efficiency by HEEPI (Higher Education Environmental Performance Improvement) in 2005.
For further information please contact: Shemina Davis, Media Relations Officer, on 0114 2225339 or email shemina.davis@sheffield.ac.uk
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