Over the past few weeks, my Water Conservation Education and Promotion partner, Andrew Clark, and I have been busy working in the local elementary schools. After hours of preparing, photocopying, stapling and folding, we were finally ready to go out into the schools and talk to the students about water conservation.
Although we have been doing presentations in the schools for a number of years now, we feel that this year in particular had a big impact on the students. It was really appreciated how the teachers prepared their individual classes beforehand, making sure that the students knew the basics about why water is important and how the water cycle works. This made it easier for us to jump right in and talk about how Merritt gets its water and the local issues we are facing with our water supply. We also had time to introduce what the water situation looks like on a global scale.
One of the biggest questions that came up in the schools was why we were so concerned with water conservation when there was currently flooding going on. It gave us the opportunity to explain to the students that even though the rivers are high, the large volume of water being carried into Merritt is also flowing out of Merritt. We were able to show the students that it takes a long time for the water to sink down into the soil and reach our aquifer. The gravel and rocks act as a filter, slowing the water down as it is pulled by gravity. So although we have a lot of water above ground, it can be misleading to how much is below ground. And even though we have had a wet spring so far, it does not take long to reduce our aquifer with heavy summer watering. It is a good idea to keep conserving water so that our aquifer can replenish and hold water for future summers when the rains do not come so readily.
It was encouraging to see how the students reacted to our presentations. Many expressed their interest and thanked us for coming in. In return, we would like to say a few “thank you’s” as well. Thank you to all the principals and teachers who let us come in and talk to your students. Thank you to all the students who participated in our colouring competition. Your entries will be posted at the aquatic centre, so go check them out! A special thank you to Mr. Dixon’s class at Central Elementary. We found this class to be especially engaged in our presentation and ended up choosing two winners from that class. Congratulations to Hailey Cullen (grade 5, Central School) and Natasha Zimmerman (grade 6, Central School) for being our two intermediate winners. Also, congratulations to Lauren Thygesen (grade 2, Bench School) and Sebastian Douglas-Myram (grade 2, Colletteville School) for being our two primary winners. It was hard to pick only four winners, but these four students were chosen for their creative colouring and unique suggestions for water conservation.
So once again, thank you to everyone who participated and helped make the school presentations such a success. We hope to see you throughout the summer and will be providing more activities and information at different city functions, so if you see us around town, feel free to come talk to us! We are willing to answer any questions you may have or listen to any concerns you may want to express. Until then, have a wonderful summer and talk to you soon!
Emily Clark, Water Conservation Student
