The amount of water used in Scoil Pol in Kilfinane has been reduced to 25% of what it was three years ago, with the school having been just awarded their third green flag for water conservation.

Speaking about how they achieved this phenomenal reduction, chairperson of the Green Schools Committee and sixth year student, Jess Quinn, said that they set about changing the mindset of the students and staff in terms of water use and potential waste. 

They carried out a survey among students and realised that there was a significant loss of water in the bathrooms and the Home Economics room. They first reduced this waste by putting up posters reminding people to turn off taps; they put up facts about the importance of water and made a timetable for students to check the taps, before they had the push taps installed.

Jess told The Avondhu that when they started in January, the school was using an average of 5,154 litres of water, but by May that had come down to 2,001 litres, thus reducing the average water use per student from a whopping 21 litres down to just 6.2 litres.

COMMUNITY AWARENESS

The 15-member committee also ran a water awareness day before Christmas, with a PowerPoint presentation, a no uniform day and information leaflets for students to bring home, so that the water conservation could spread further out into the community.

While working towards the water conservation flag, they also had to maintain the standard for their flags for litter and energy. To ensure this, they put up signs to remind people to turn off lights, they put new bins in and also planted a tree to raise awareness about recycling. They are also considering a cycle to school day to reduce the students' carbon footprint.

Green Schools Committee member, Lisa Higgins said that the water was a lot harder to control, as it was hard to monitor, but by putting stoppers in the Home Economics room sinks and by doing up a rota for students to monitor taps, they could control and monitor this. For instance, Eilish Condon added that for their Home Economics practical assignment, they limited themselves to using just one basin of water.

INSPIRATION

The green flag was raised by Munster rugby player, Tommy O'Donnell who has links to the school, as his grandmother used to cycle to the school, his aunt attended there and he has cousins currently enrolled. He was described by principal Mike O'Hara as a player who will rise to the ranks in the Irish rugby team in years to come, saying that he is an inspiration for young people who want to make a career out of something they are passionate about.

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