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Strategies for a water efficient school
You can help your school be water wise by doing things to reduce water use. These include:
- checking how much water your school is using
- encouraging water wise behaviour
- replacing or improving your school's water devices and assets.
Find out more about strategies to help your school be water efficient.
Managing and monitoring water use at school
Knowing how much water your school uses is an important first step to improving water efficiency. Find out how much water your school uses by:
- calculating your school's water efficiency and finding out how your school might improve this, by using a water efficiency flow chart (PDF - 63KB)
- making a roster of water monitors to read the meter early in the morning (before water use) and late in the afternoon (after water use) to check for water leaks (PDF - 1350KB)
- conducting a water audit (PDF - 1410KB) to work out how much water your school uses, where it is used and whether your toilets, taps and bubblers are water efficient.
Once you have worked out your school's water efficiency you can help monitor and manage your school's water use by:
- creating a water efficiency monitoring team to regularly check for leaking and running taps, bubblers or toilets and record school water use (PDF - 304KB)
- creating a water efficiency plan (DOC - 34KB) which can be linked to a School Environmental Management Plan (SEMP). NSW Sustainable Schools gives advice on developing a SEMP
- joining Sydney Water's Every Drop Counts in Schools Program to get support and advice
- investigating ways to improve water efficiency in school gardens.
- asking after-hours school users to reduce water use.
Encouraging water wise behaviour
Encouraging water wise behaviour is one way to improve your school's water efficiency. You can help by:
- not turning the tap on too hard or leaving the tap running for a long time while washing your hands
- using the half flush button on the toilet instead of the full flush (when you can)
- turning off taps properly when you have finished using them
- reporting leaking taps, bubblers and toilets to a teacher. One drop a second wastes 7,000 litres of water a year
- washing paint brushes in a bucket or ice cream container, rather than under a running tap
- getting everyone involved by designing and hanging posters and signs around the school, designing a school water efficiency mascot and speaking at the school assembly about water efficiency strategies.
Replacing or improving taps, bubblers, toilets and tanks
Having efficient water devices and assets is very important for saving water. Your school can help by:
- installing smart meters to check on school water use
- installing a rainwater tank and connecting it to toilets and gardens
- fixing all leaks quickly
- checking the water flow (PDF - 421KB) of taps to see if any are inefficient or leaking and could be replaced or have aerators added
- replacing old taps and bubblers with spring loaded (push button) ones. For government schools, advice about preferred water devices is available on the Department of Education and Training (DET) intranet under asset management
- replacing single flush toilets with dual flush toilets
- adjusting the flush valve in toilet cisterns so the smallest amount of water is used for each flush
- replacing continuous flush and fill urinals with motion sensor or pull chain urinals
- replacing shower heads with 5-star rated, water efficient ones
- locking toilets at night and over the weekend.
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