Save water: wee in the shower!

Taking a shower

Called the Go with the Flow campaign, the project was started by University of East Anglia students Debs Torr and Chris Dobson.

The aim (Sorry: bad pun!) is for the university’s 15 000 students to take their first wee of the day while having their morning shower.

Those taking part are encouraged to to pledge their allegiance on Facebook and Twitter and gift vouchers will be sent to the first people to sign up for the challenge.

“We’ve done the maths”

Dobson told BBC News: “We’ve done the maths, and this project stands to have a phenomenal impact”.

He has calculated that if 15 000 students have their morning wee in the shower each day, that over the course of a year, they would save enough water to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool 26 times! This would have a huge inpact on water saving if they could get everyone in the UK to change their morning habits.

Love it or hate it

According to Dobson, people either seem to love it or hate the campaign idea, but he added that they are “trying to challenge conventional behaviour, to start a debate on a resource that we largely take for granted”.

Health risks researched

The students have consulted a professor and conducted online research about potential health risks for people using communal showers.

Apparently, as long as the water is flowing there are no health risks as urine is sterile, but he urges the importance of all people who use the same shower to agree to the challenge before any one person takes part.

Dobson and Torr are representing their university in the Npower Future Leaders Challenge to inspire students to come up with an environmental initiative for their campus. A UEA spokeswoman said the university “supported students in their efforts in these initiatives and encouraged all forms of enterprising, entrepreneurial and employability activity”.

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