Young migrants and multicultural youth will use Australia Day to help protect our country’s most precious natural resource by exchanging 1000 free water saving showerheads in the City of Casey.
The young people, aged 14 to 24 and from diverse backgrounds, have spent the past six weeks learning about water conservation and environmental sustainability through the Multicultural Youth Eco-Challenge.
Residents will have their old showerheads exchanged for the new water-saving versions free of charge at two Australia Day events:
The water-conservation activities are organised and hosted by the Eco-Challenge participants and supported by South East Water, which will also donate $3 for each showerhead exchanged to future projects run by the youth.
Tara Dowler, 15, one of the young organisers, said the way we use water “affects the community, locally and globally.”
“No matter what language we speak or the shade of our skin, we are all on this Earth together and we need to look after our clean water,’’ Tara said.
The average Australian home uses most water in the bathroom, in particular the shower. Conventional showerheads blast out about 15 litres of water per minute whereas water efficient showerheads use only nine litres a minute.
“As the youth of Casey we are aware that many people do care about our city’s water and what better time to acknowledge our conservation responsibilities than Australia Day?” Tara said.
Fellow participant Shegofa Zahidi, 20, said she had learnt a lot from visits to the Yarra River and Cardinia Reservoir, where she noted a major water level drop in recent times.
“I have lived through drought in Afghanistan and I know the value of water,’’ Shegofa said. “Saving water can mean saving lives. I think by working to save water together we can bring our communities together. We all need to learn to understand the value of water.”
The Multicultural Youth Eco-Challenge is run in partnership by the City of Casey, Environment Victoria and the Centre for Multicultural Youth Issues.