Water value award for Ferns Tidy Towns
FERNS Tidy Towns group took home the Irish Water Value Award in the Small Town category at the SuperValu Tidy Towns regional ceremony which took place in Ballina, Co Tipperary last Thursday.
The Value Water award is about raising awareness of the importance of mindful water consumption within communities and is about reconnecting communities with water, creating a greater understanding of where water comes from and where wastewater goes to.
The community in Ferns received the award for their project which focused on water conservation. Their initiative promotes rainwater harvesting in the community in conjunction with Wexford County Council and promotes the benefits of water savings through education. Six large water butts were installed at strategic locations in the village at the local schools and outside local businesses. The harvested water was used to water plants during the summer months.
Aisling Buckley of Irish Water said: ‘Congratulations to the Ferns Tidy Towns group on winning the Irish Water Value Award for Best Small Town in the South East region. Irish Water is very proud to sponsor the Value Water Awards for a second year which we hope will lead the way in inspiring water conservation at a local level. The work the Ferns Tidy Towns group has carried out to win the award is truly inspirational.’
This year’s prize fund of €8,000 for the Value Water Award includes four regional winners for each category and a prize of €1,000 for Best Large Town and Best Small Town. In the South and Mid-West region, Cobh in Co Cork was awarded the Best Large Town Irish Water Value Award, while Coolagown, Co Cork and Tuamgraney, Co Clare received awards in the Village category.
Initiatives implemented by the winners to conserve water included significant reductions in daily water consumption, projects to educate local school children to the importance of conserving water, work by local schools to introduce water saving measures, installation of water butts and rain water harvesting.