SAVING water is something we all know we should be doing.
And students at the Howard of Effingham School have come up with ideas for how this vital resource can be conserved.
Pupils of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) took part in the Aqua Innovation scheme, launched by Sutton and East Surrey Water in January.
The students presented their work to water industry experts and an audience, including Sutton and East Surrey Water's managing director Anthony Ferrar, at Denbies Vineyard on Tuesday.
Panel member Adrian White, founder of Biwater, one of the world's largest water engineering companies, said: "It's hugely encouraging to see this generation rising to the challenge of inventing ways to help conserve this very precious resource."
Other panellists included Dr Jean Venables, chairman of Crane Environmental, Global Action Plan's chief executive Trewin Restorick, Chris Hazelton, of the Environment Agency, and Helen Charlton, of the Consumer Council for Water.
The project aimed to motivate students to create water-saving products, technology and communication campaigns, and has been developed in partnership with Southern Water, Global Action Plan and STEMNET, which aims to inspire young people to develop their creativity, problem-solving and employability skills within STEM subjects.
The students' project work included creating a website to display their survey results and promoting facts about water usage and advice on how to save water.
Their "pitch-to-switch" team presented the findings from their water audits to the school's board of governors and demonstrated that potentially 53 per cent of the water used in the schools' urinals could be saved – amounting to a total annual saving of £2,500.
And the product design team came up with an innovative flushing system called 'Novum Latrinum', which uses pulleys and a hydrophobic-coated toilet bowl.
The Lower Road school students were supported by engineers Jez Heath and Allan Nkurunziza.
Talking about their experience of working with the students, Mr Heath said: "We were continually impressed by the enthusiasm and their technical skills."
All the students taking part qualify for a silver CREST award and they were each presented with United Nations Environment Programme certificates.
