Start Blue Water Project at Hamiëd

On 17 May and 20 May two schools, two grades and approximately 50 students started the educational project “Groenhofje Hamiëd’. This initiative by RBC Royal Bank and Aqualectra, in collaboration with Stichting Huntu Kòrsou and Fundashon Splikami, creates awareness about water conservation and the reuse of water under eight graders from Marnix School and Kolegio Santa Klara.

For the purpose of this pilot project a wetland was constructed near the nursing home “Woonhof Hamiëd” in Brievengat. The wetland purifies wastewater from, amongst other sources, the bathroom and the kitchen to be reused for watering plants and trees. The nursing home was chosen with the aim to turn Groenhofje into a meeting place for social, recreational and therapeutic activities for the residents. Moreover, the project will bring young and old together, keeping in line with the three Ps of sustainability: People, Planet and Profit.

The students are taught in several sessions how to reduce their water consumption after which they will put what they’ve learned into practice at home. The student who manages to reduce his or her household water consumption the most will win a price. Aqualectra staff will guide the students through each session. In addition to classes about reducing water consumption, the children learn about the importance of clean water. Part of the project is to plant trees and plants in the Hamiëd courtyard and water them with the purified water from the constructed wetland. Through this project RBC and Aqualectra want to become ambassadors for increasing awareness of the importance of water in societies.

This project is part of RBC Royal Bank’s global programme “Blue Water Project”.  In March of this year, a seminar on “Efficient water use in Budget Planning” was organised on World Water Day as part of the Blue Water Project.  In order to ensure continuity of this project, the intention is to run this project on new locations and in collaboration with other elementary schools in the coming years.

The Blue Water Project aims to raise awareness of the importance of clean water in the community and make drinking water more accessible. For the financial year 2013-2014 the Blue Water Project focuses on supporting initiatives that contribute to protecting and preserving water in villages, towns and residential areas.

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• Culture Diary | #RBCgroenhofje by Stephan Slaa (weleadcuracao.wordpress.com)
• Culture Diary | RBC Blue Water Project #RBCgroenhofje (weleadcuracao.wordpress.com)