Maltese schools achieve highest global rankings in international water programme
Gozo College Middle School has been chosen as the school to represent Malta in the international Water Explorer programme, and will now showcase its water conservation efforts during an international celebration event in October in Canary Wharf, London. The top school from each of the 12 participating countries will be present.
St Clare College San Ġwann Primary School and Laura Vicuna School were the second and third place holders respectively. The judging event proved to be a closely-fought one with all schools taking innovative actions in their quest to save water and raise awareness on the different uses of water, especially hidden water (*). It is to be noted that five of the Maltese schools qualifying for the finals have actually been occupying the top five international rankings from amongst the 3,500 participating schools around the world.
The eight finalists qualified after taking various water conservation measures mainly with projects supported by financial grants offered by HSBC Malta Water Programme. In addition to the position holders, the other five finalists were: St Nicholas College Rabat Primary School, St Margaret College Kalkara Primary School, Mater Boni Consilii St Joseph School in Paola, Maria Regina College Dun Manwel Attard Young Adult Education Resource Centre in Wardija and St Ignatius College Middle School in Ħandaq.
HSBC Malta CEO Andrew Beane said: “It is fantastic to see young people so committed to the conservation of water which is an ever more precious resource. We are proud to have supported the success of the Maltese and Gozitan schools who have literally led the world on this initiative and we wish Gozo College Middle School the very best of luck in the global programme finals in London later this year.”
Water Explorer is a fun, actionoriented, international online programme that inspires thousands of students to become ‘water explorers’ and lead related actions both in their school communities and local communities. It was launched in Malta in November 2017 and is being coordinated by Nature Trust – FEE Malta through the Eco-Schools programme.
Managed by the NGO Global Action Plan, the programme is being followed in France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Poland, South Africa, Ireland and the UK. Participating schools are encouraged to link up with schools from other countries to share their ideas and top watersaving tips. The online resources are aligned to the United Nation’s SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) and are ideal for 8-14 year olds but can freely be used by younger and older students.
More details about Water Explorer are available at http://www.waterexplorer.org/ malta, on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/wat erexplorermalta/ or by contacting project coordinator Marvic Refalo at marvic@naturetrustmalta.org
(*) Hidden water is the amount of water it takes to make every day products such as paper, plastic, metal and fabric.