Lessons in conserving water in schools
Arainwater harvesting system which can collect almost 3000 litres of rainwater built for SK Air Baruk in Melaka recently, will help decrease tap water usage at the school by 50 per cent. It will also be used for the “Tiny Forest” area and gardening activities in the school.
The project was part of the World Water Day 2019 celebration organised together with Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Melaka State Education Department and Green Growth Asia Foundation, which took place in Melaka last month.
Attended by 300 students from 13 schools, the celebration aimed to raise awareness on the importance of water resources protection and the need of water conservation in school environment.
UPM water scientist and main coordinator of the celebration Associate Professor Dr Sarva Mangala Praveena said: “Teaching young children on the importance of water resources allow them to learn this information at a young age and will also benefit their family members. This behavioral change will take some time but continuous awareness programmes will help.”
Students also participated in the Eco Code competition where they built water-saving sculptures and submitted a video presentation on Facebook before presenting how their creation can help save water in front of three judges.
SK Dato Demang Hussin and their “Gayung” (a container with a handle used for taking up water) sculpture was announced as the grand winner followed by SK Air Baruk and SK Bukit Lintang. Their videos which bring water saving message in conjunction with World Water Day have reached almost 85k views on the official Facebook page for this celebration. SK Bukit Lintang also walked away with the Most Creative Visuals under the Young Reporters for The Environment
(YRE) Malaysia Programme award.
Year 6 student Mohd Danish Fathurrahman Mohd Rasidi from SK Bukit Lintang said joining the celebration has helped them build awareness on how to save water in their daily activities.
“Joining Eco Code Competition helped us to learn new tips on water savings which will be useful for us not only in school but also at home. Our teachers also helped us collect newspapers, articles from the Internet, environmental magazines and related books to prepare us for the competition.
For SK Convent Infant Jesus 1 student Tan Ying Xuan, participating in the activities for the celebration also gave her the chance to not only learn about the importance of water for humans but also animals and marine lives.
“At the same time, as we gain more knowledge on water conservation we were also able to improve our presentation skills.”
SK Air Baruk headmaster Nizam Aziz who believes that environmental education should take place outside the classroom said schools are one of the platforms for the children to learn about environmental awareness in a fun way.