The Water Conservation and Rain Harvesting Project of the Port Morant Primary and Junior High School in St. Thomas has been boosted by the donation and installation of a 1000-gallon Water Tank courtesy of Petrojam Limited.
Speaking recently at the Official Handing over ceremony, Principal of the institution Marcia Haughton explained that the Project was the school’s 2012 entry for the Jamaica Environment Trust’s Annual Schools’ Environment Programme. It is the brainchild of Project Manager and now retired school teacher Mrs. Pansy Murphy, who played an integral part in sourcing funds for the project.
Mrs. Haughton noted that the institution has reaped significant savings from the project and has reduced their demand for and usage of water from the main NWC Water supply. The harvested rain water is used to flush toilets, water plants and in other daily housekeeping activities.
She further informed that the project is ongoing as the school is committed to continuously exploring creative and sustainable ways of improving its operations. They are now exploring different methods that can be used to sanitize the water to enable increased usage for other activities and to further reduce the water bill.
“With all good intentions, the Ministry of Education does not have the capacity to fulfill all the needs of the School and so we have to depend on others; so it is great that corporate entities, such as Petrojam have found it necessary to give to worthy causes such as this,” Mrs. Haughton noted.
Grade three student and active 4-H club member Ashanti Thompson was very knowledgeable about the project and sought to explain how the system worked. “We use the water in the bathroom, the pipe takes it from the roof into the tank, and from the tank to the bathrooms,” informed Ashanti.
Senior Supervisor in Petrojam’s Marketing and Logistics Department, Hugh Hines commended the institution for their environmental consciousness; a trait which he noted was shared enthusiastically by both staff and students. He urged them to continue such conservation efforts and to continue in their bid to preserve their environment.