Teodoro & Zhang (2017) claim that water scarcity has developed into a global issue that gets worse every year. One of the areas in the United States of America affected by the catastrophe of water scarcity is the state of California. The educational institutions must develop frameworks that would provide a platform for innovation in order to aid in the conservation of water from rivers and lakes. This will aid in lowering the amount of water that individuals use. Water, according to Tran, Jassby, and Schwabe (2017), is one of the most priceless resources on the surface of the globe. Because it is a crucial component of the ecosystem, its importance is obvious. It is the wide range of water necessities which act as driving forces behind the goals to preserve it. Therefore, it is mere common sense for members of the human race to conserve this scarce resource for future generations.
Project Management
Teodor & Zhang (2017), state that the initial step in water conservation is to economize the resource. It is for this reason that I felt the need to recruit four former colleagues from Andrews senior School in my water conservation project. The main objective of the project is to initiate a program that would ensure limited water consumption and wastage at the institution. Water has always been one of the greatest problems at Andrew Senior School. Moreover, the situation is often worsened by the fact that, it is located in Nevada. This is a region which is often hit by intense water shortage during the summer seasons; an experience that I had as a student in the school. Even so, the idea of initiating the program to help the school in water conservation hit me when I visited the institution for a fundraiser in April 2017. A week later, I talked to the deputy principal of the school on phone, explained my concern and proposed my intentions to help find a solution to the challenge. I was asked to write a proposal of the project so that it is presented formally before the School's board of management.
Considering the bulk of task which awaited, I reached out to four of my former high school colleagues. Jimmy, Henry, Jacky and Suzy would make a better team because they were alumni of Andrew Senior School, therefore they had perfect understanding of the infrastructure and water shortage situation within the institution. Moreover, these are folks that I worked with in different projects while in high school. They are not only development oriented folks but also active members of Sierra Club, an effective organization that fights for the preservation of clean air, land, forest and water. Having a team with vast experience in environmental conservation, I am certain that the objectives of the project would definitely be achieved.
I reached out to the team members on phone and updated them on the proposed project. We then organized for a meeting on May 15th at Suzy's place, an engineering student at Stanford University. The reason for having Stanford University as our venue was because of its centrality to the other colleges where the rest of us were. The discussion was great, and immense advancement was made on the proposal. Nonetheless, there was need for the group to revisit Andrew Senior School so that each member had a clear picture of the current situation. Two weeks later we convened, visited the school and did our survey which assisted in refining our project's proposal before making the presentation on 30th of May. Luckily, the management of the school appreciated our efforts, in fact, the principal asked to be included in the project.
The broad based framework for sustainability of water will be focused on water portability and water wastage. The approach that the plan will be given will encompass change of behavior, renovations and innovations. The project's main purpose will be to enable Andrew Senior School preserve this precious resource within the institution. This will enable the school to reduce both water wastage and portability by 15%. The framework will go further to give a description of the plan which will be followed by the institution in a bid to achieve its goals in water conservation. Besides, it will as well focus on the institutional policies that will reflect the framework of water conservation and of course the data from water audit. In order to strategize a good plan for water conservation, the project shall run a water audit in the institution for a period of six months. We believe that this will be enough time for us to come up with clear statistics of water usage within the school. Most of the work will be executed by students who will be assigned and under the guidance of the boarding master. Therefore the first lot of students will be required to measure the rates of flow in the water fixtures. This will be followed by collection of data on portable water which will enable us determine the water consumption by students.
The second step will be to obtain the institution's water bills from Nevada County water department. The information will then be analyzed by use of data in regard to the total consumption and bills from the school water meter. This information will help determine the areas with high rates of water consumption. The data will then be benchmarked with water data information from another institution with the same conditions. The following critical features need to be considered before picking on a school to be used as a yardstick. They include: population of the students, the number of the teaching and the non-teaching staff members, the location of the institution and most importantly, the availability of water consumption statistics.
Strategies for Attaining Limited Water Consumption
Renovation of the school's buildings so that every structure is updated with new fixtures like dual flush and low flow.
There will be need to ensure behavioral change on water usage amongst the students. This will be achieved through sensitization of the students during forums on water conservation. It will therefore upon the management of the institution to organize for such educative platforms on water conservation. It is however critical to point out that the need for behavioral change would cut across and include even the teaching and the non-teaching staff members.
The institution will be compelled to adopt a system in which repairs and renovations on the water passages are done timely but not only when damages are noticed.
Whenever new installations of water conserving fixtures are done, it will be necessary for the users to be informed and guided appropriately on how to handle the equipment. This will help avoid unnecessary breakages which would subsequently increase the maintenance cost.
Finally, a leak hotline in form of text message or email will be availed to the students so that to help them report any leak whenever noticed by any student or staff members of the school.
Financing
In a bid to achieve the water conservation goals, the institution should begin the Green Revolving Fundraiser. This is the first investment that is meant for the sustenance of projects. Later on when the project is completed, the savings are put back into the kitty. The initial startup funds will help to invest in water conservation through renovations in the entire institution. Moreover, we shall use our candidature and influence at Sierra Club to look for donor funding and grants. It will as well be important for the school to rebate programming which would make them lose donations for water efficient projects. The school will be obligated to make investments in the water conservation technologies for at least three years. After this duration, savings shall have accumulated from these technologies. Since even the future renovations will include the installation of water efficient fixtures, which will in turn enable funds to be returned to the Green Revolving Funds kitty.
Conclusion
People are always right to equate water to life. A mere mention of this word may not bear as much weight as its meaning. It may sound ordinary but just a day without this resource could carry with it, great misery. This is the driving force behind the water conservation project. Despite the fact that the federal government in collaboration with the state authorities has done a lot to ensure the accessibility of this important natural resource to the Californians, much still need to be done. The burden needs not to be left entirely to the relevant authorities. There are bits of water conservation that can be handled by the users. For instance, avoidance of water wastage is one of the most important steps in water conservation. Actually, it is the major concept in this project. The pertinent issue is, water may be available, but if used irresponsibly, it might end up being scarce, This should not only apply to people who reside in drought prone regions but even to those who have easy access to this resource. Therefore, let us promote conservation of environment by using water responsibly.
References
Teodoro, M., & Zhang, Y. (2017). Privatization as Political Decoupling: Water Conservation and the 2014-2017 California Drought.
Tran, Q. K., Jassby, D., & Schwabe, K.A. (2017). Corrigendum to “The implications of drought and water conservation in the reuse of municipal wastewater: Recognizing impacts and identifying mitigation.”
