Annual Report 2011 - Watercare

Watercare Services Limited
2011 ANNUAL REPORT
Watercare
at work
Adopt A Stream delivered to nearly 7,000 students
This year, 6,988 students from 43 schools and two kindergartens
participated in Watercare’s Adopt A Stream education programme.
Watercare’s education programme was created in 2001 in an effort
to provide Auckland schools with a science programme that taught
students the fundamentals of the water cycle and how water
quality and ecology directly affect their lives.
Education Co-ordinator Sally Smith says the programme is
becoming increasingly popular, to the point where she taught
over 1,000 students in May alone:
“There’s been so much demand for the programme recently that
teachers have started to book a year in advance. In fact, my diary
for term one in 2012 is almost full already.”
Sally says that while trying to meet the ever-increasing demand,
she’s also looking at ways the programme can keep improving:
“I’m in the process of developing a new unit on dams and
producing a book titled Water for Life, which I hope we can
roll out in the near future.”
In addition to school visits, the programme comes with 10 practical
lessons, posters and a number of cross-curricular resources. Sally
has also introduced stormwater, drinking water and wastewater
lessons as well as a library display.
Main image: Year 5 pupils at Willow Park Primary School in Hillcrest on Auckland’s North Shore
discovered how water is treated during a hands-on lesson with Education Co-ordinator Sally Smith.
Inset: Many pupils experience the Waitakere Ranges aboard the Rain Forest Express.
A number of schools that participate in the Adopt A Stream
programme also choose to ride Watercare’s Rain Forest Express.
The narrow-gauge railway is situated in the Waitakere Ranges,
one of Watercare’s two largest catchments for drinking water. The
schools combine the field trip to the Upper Nihotupu Dam, where
the railway is located, with their water-based lessons.
Sally says: “It’s great for the students to be able to visit and learn
about the dams and the environment. It really helps bring their
classroom-based lessons to life.”
Weblinks
Community impact of operations Fig. 33
Public policy participation Fig. 34
Rain Forest Express passengers and trips Fig. 35
Adopt A Stream Fig. 36
Stakeholder relations
PAGE 43
Return to Contents page