Water Security Strengthened At Valkyrie State School

After six years of dry taps and taking plastic bottles to school, a rural Isaac region school now has a more secure water future, thanks to charity Rural Aid.

Rural Aid facilitated the installation of a SOURCE Hydropanel array at Valkyrie State School and believes that this technology could help facilitate drinking water security for other struggling schools.

Valkyrie P&C President Kristen Michelmore said the Hydropanels have given the community a huge amount of peace of mind since their installation late last month.

Ms Michelmore said prior to the Hydropanels’ installation, students had taken it upon themselves to monitor how much water they drank during the day.

“School needs to be a safe place where kids can learn and not have to worry about turning on a tap,” Ms Michelmore said.

“Regional school children should be treated the same as those in the cities and provided the same basic services. Through my work with the Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association it is clear this is not just a problem for Valkyrie – many other schools across regional and remote Australia have issues with drinking water quality and access, so it would be great to see more projects like this supported by the Government and Education Department.”

Rural Aid CEO John Warlters said the technology will better the students’ quality of life.

“Droughts are difficult for kids to process, so to not have safe drinking water at school, on top of dry taps at home, is an appalling situation,” Mr Warlters said.

“Rural Aid acted quickly to offer the Valkyrie school community a sustainable and drought-proof alternative to trucked-in water. We’re hoping that this installation will serve as the benchmark for providing water across more schools in Queensland that face issues of scarcity and contamination.”

“Rural Aid is proud to have provided a solution to this rural community’s drinking water woes,” Mr Warlters said.

SOURCE Global’s Director of Market Development, Alex Polson, said that the innovative technology will shore up supplies and provide much needed resilience for students, parents, and teachers within the Valkyrie community.

“No parent or teacher should have to worry about where they’re going to get drinking water from for their children and students, so we’re glad that SOURCE Hydropanels can ensure a consistent, drought-proof supply of water here in Valkyrie,” he said.

Rural Aid, SOURCE Global, the Central Queensland Mining Rehabilitation Group and Stanmore Resources have covered the majority of the panels’ costs with some local funding also helping to finalise the project.

With the school previously reliant on plastic bottled water and donations, SOURCE also highlighted the environmental benefit of the Hydropanels, with the Hydropanel array able to offset more than 800,000 plastic bottles over its 15-year lifetime.

“The use of decentralised, renewable technologies like SOURCE Hydropanels give regional and remote parts of Australia the ability to become healthier and more climate resilient, while avoiding the cost, waste, and inconvenience of single use plastic bottles,” Mr Polson said.

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