The Water Conservancy is pleased to announce Goulburn Valley Water as the winner of the Water Industry Water Night award for 2024. The prize was a Bosch dishwasher worth $1249, which goes to the water utility with the most number of staff signing up for the five hour Tap-Off event (by %).
The winner of the dishwasher was Goulburn Valley Water, staff member - Troy Riordan. He shares his story below:
Our Family Water Night Experience
Kids love a challenge, so getting everyone in our house to agree to the conditions of Water Night - turning off all non-essential taps for a five hour period - wasn't all that tough a sell.
In fact, when we sat down to discuss our involvement in the event it was interesting to see the response from the kids - seven-year-old Jimmy and 11-year-old Larni (pictured right).
Having the discussion with them around how lucky we were to have affordable and clean drinking water was an awakening experience.
It was a real eye opener to see the look on their faces when we spoke about how young babies and children in less fortunate countries, like South Asia and parts of Latin America, struggle with water quality due to pollution, over-extraction of groundwater, and contamination from industrial waste.
My wife and I are very aware of our water use and preach the importance of water conservation to our kids regularly.
As for the greatest user of water in the house, that honour sits comfortably with our seven-year-old son. We have to constantly drag him out of the shower.
Most of our water use is from showering, but being a "lawn lover" water use in summer does increase depending on the weather.
The night before Water Night we sat down as a family, over dinner, to discuss what Water Night was about. We spoke about how water is a resource that we all need to survive and that Water Night was a national event designed to highlight the importance of water conservation in Australia.
As a result of our improved water literacy everyone now takes shorter showers, I've decreased lawn watering and we only wash clothes with full machine loads.
And the new dishwasher will also help. The current one is 12 or14 years old and will not be near as water efficient as the new Bosch. As quickly as the box it comes in will be opened and in use.
If your organization is interested in getting involved with Water Night contact us