SOURCE Global, Media Release, 21 March 2024 [as corrected at 22 March 2024]
In the lead up to World Water Day on March 22, SOURCE Global has reported on the success of its partnership with the NSW Department of Education, which installed 100 SOURCE ®Hydropanels across 10 drought-impacted schools to provide accessible drinking water for children and teachers, in compliance with Australian Drinking Water Guidelines. To date the project has offset over 500,000 PET bottles and provided resilient supply to more than 1,500 students and teachers in some of the most remote and vulnerable parts of NSW.
The NSW Government’s successful pilot to deliver sustainable drinking water was commissioned in 2019 when more than 200 schools in rural and remote parts of the State were identified as water stressed – 47 of which are still reliant on PET bottles for drinking water, a situation recently highlighted by both the State Premier Chris Minns and this year’s Country Labor Conference in Nowra.
Quote – Rob Bartrop, CRO, SOURCE Global:
“We have been thrilled with the engagement and impact resulting from our projects in New South Wales schools – we have demonstrated that hydropanels are a reliable, high-quality and cost-effective way to provide water to more than a dozen schools in some of the remote parts of the state. Students, teachers, and parents have all been excited to have clean water at school – something that is taken for granted at schools in Sydney”.
“The Government now has the innovative solution to deliver renewable water to the 220 schools that they have identified as water-stressed, which would immediately reduce the burden from taxpayers, parents and community groups who are currently footing the bill for bottled water and high-sugar drinks that are being consumed as an alternative to water from a tap. And with a long, hot summer on the way, we’re likely to see the situation worsen as water reserves deplete.”
Participating schools in the program, which include Canobolas Public School, Rollands Plains Upper Public School, Comboyne Public School, Drummond Memorial Public School, Walgett Community College, Pallamallawa Public School, Narromine Public School, Tullibigeal Central School, Goodooga Central School and Ellerston Public School previously had to truck in drinking water.
Australian water scarcity
In 2022 the Department of Education estimated that almost 50 NSW schools relied on deliveries of bottled water because of no permanent access to safe, clean drinking water.
According to researchers at the Australian National University, Australians in more than 400 remote or regional communities lack access to good-quality drinking water, while about eight per cent of Australia’s population is not included in reporting on access to clean water.
About SOURCE Global
SOURCE Global’s ®Hydropanel technology equates to the world’s first renewable drinking water system that is clean, safe, made entirely off-grid, usable almost anywhere in Australia.
®Hydropanels use solar energy to draw pure, constantly replenished water vapor out of the sky and convert it to premium drinking water. The system works entirely off the grid, in humid and dry climates and in rural and extremely remote locations.
Editor: This is an updated version of the media release. An earlier version contained an incorrect reference to a $6.7b investment by the NSW Government.
