Aglish N.S. is a two teacher rural primary school located in west Waterford.
With regard to water conservation, Aglish N.S. looked at toilet cisterns, through which they found a lot of water was being wasted unnecessarily. They decided to put rocks in the cisterns in order to reduce the volume of water used in each flush. They were careful with the rocks they selected, they made sure to measure the right amount of space so that there was enough water in the cistern for one good flush without having to flush twice. Therefore, they weighed the rocks collected outside, so they would all take up the same capacity in the cisterns. They filled a 1000 millilitres (1 litre) jug and put rocks in cisterns. The water rose to 1150 ml, so the rocks saved 150 ml per flush. Aglish N.S. worked out the average number of flushes per day i.e. 90 flushes. They knew they were saving 150 ml per flush, therefore through this simple no cost measure, the school was saving 13,500 ml (or 13.5 litres) of water per day. This works out at 67.5 litres per week, and with approximately 36 weeks in a school year, the school is saving 2,430 litres per year!
Other measures to conserve water:
- Every pupil makes sure to turn taps off properly and keeps an eye open for any leaks.
- The school harvests rainwater for watering plants and flowers.
- The kettle is filled up with the amount of water that will be used.
- Cartons, paintbrushes, etc. are washed in a plugged sink to avoid constant running water.
Aglish N.S. have continued their work on Litter & Waste and Energy. They are monitoring closely the amount of material being recycled, cost of electricity bills, the volume of oil used for heating. These figures are recorded monthly and go back until 2002, therefore enabling them to look at trends over a four year period.
