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Liquid Assets
New partnership teaches kids everything they always wanted to know about water
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Business New Haven
11/27/2000
By: Linda G. Mele
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A public-private partnership among Connecticut water utilities, the state's Department of Public Health and WTNH-TV kicked off at Maloney Magnet School in Waterbury recently “to develop an education campaign on the subject of water.”
According to South Central Connecticut Regional Water Authority spokesman Joan Huwiler, the program is designed to inform residents about topics such as conservation, private wells, public drinking water, watershed protection and local health departments.
Huwiler says the campaign will also reach out to the participants of “SchoolNet 8,” a worldwide automated weather source that educates students and teachers about “the correlation between water and weather, including the effects of drought or how a hurricane develops.”
More than 130 schools in the state currently participate in the SchoolNet 8 system.
Founding members of the coalition are the South Central Connecticut Regional Water Authority (SCCRWA), BHC Co. (the former Bridgeport Hydraulic Co.), Connecticut-American Water Company and the state's Department of Public Health.
In all, 30 water utilities - both municipal and investor-owned - statewide have signed on to the program. It's “the first time this many utilities have banded together to educate their customers with common themes at the same time,” Huwiler reports.
Public Health Commissioner Joxel Garcia has been instrumental in launching health campaigns regarding seniors, women and urban health. “One of the cornerstones of his administration is the building of strategic partnerships targeting prevention and education initiatives,” Huwiler says.
“As residents of Connecticut, we are fortunate to have water that is among the safest in the world,” Garcia says. “Yet most of us may take for granted the water that we drink and use on a daily basis. The department is proud to be a part of this partnership to educate the residents of Connecticut, including our young people, about the significance of water in their everyday lives,” says Garcia.
James Perry, president of the Connecticut Water Works Association and vice president at Connecticut-American, says the partnership provides a great way for each of the companies to communicate with its customers.
“During the next 12 months, we believe we will be able to cut through the thousands of messages that we all hear on a daily basis to raise customers' awareness about important drinking-water subjects using techniques that commercial businesses use every day - the power of television,” Perry says.
Hank Yaggi, president and general manager of WTNH, says his station “is proud to bring to Connecticut viewers this unique partnership which combines educational enrichment with science and technology.”
WTNH will air about a dozen water messages each week and combine television with the power of the Internet for teachers, according to Huwiler.
Participating schools already access SchoolNet 8 for real-time weather information and use hands-on applications in science, math, geography and computer skills.
The new program will not only provide an opportunity for a wide distribution of information about water, but could even become a national model for other utilities that want to develop similar partnerships, Huwiler says.
The New Haven-based SCCRWA in New Haven already provides free hands-on water science education programs to students, Scout troops and other groups in the 16 communities served by the company (it charges a nominal fee to groups beyond its service area) and operates the Whitney Water Center in Hamden, adjacent to the Eli Whitney Museum.
For students in grades six through eight, the SCCRWA recently launched Project WATER (Watershed, Aquatic, Terrestrial, Ecosystem, Research), which allows students to spend a day at one of the company's reservoirs “gathering data to show the interrelationship of forest, soil and lake communities within an ecosystem,” Huwiler says.
Companies participating in the partnership include the Avon Water Co., BHC, Birmingham Utilities, Candlewood Shores Water Co., Torrington Water Dept., Colchester Sewer & Water, Connecticut Water Co., Connecticut-American Water Co., East Lyme Water Co., Groton Water Co., Hazardville Water Co., Jewett City Water Co., Manchester Water Co., New Britain Water Co., New London Water Co., Norwalk 1st Taxing District Water Authority, Norwalk 2nd Taxing District Water Authority, Norwich Water Co., SCCRWA, Rural Water Co., Southeast Regional Water Authority, Southington Water Co., Sprague Water Co., Tariffville Fire District, Torrington Water Co., United Water Co., Wallingford Water Co., Waterbury Water Co., Watertown Water Authority and Watertown Fire District.
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