Tuesday, July 30, 2024

Yellow and red water with glitter

As I was washing some dishes this morning, I was reminded of something I once did in a preschool which lead to the barthrooms having yellow, red, mud-colored and sparkly water causing the students endless delight. 

For some reason, possibly a middle school unit on the causes of the next world war, we were discussing water conservation, reducing water and re-using what we did use aka "gray water". So I arranged for the drinking fountain drains and overflows to be piped to the trees, and for the AC condensate pipes to go to the flowerbeds.

I also installed a tank where we captured the watew from the preschool students' handwashing. After every messy activity, before snacktime and after using the bathrooms, they all washed their hands in dedicated preschool handshing sinks so it was easy to install the tank. I included a small screen to catch solids, and once a week added swimming-pool chlorine tablets to a floating container to prevent mold and bacteria growth.

A pump then took this captured water through the wall to fill the two most frequently used toilet tanks. (A floating valve connected to city-water meant that this first tank was never too empty to fill the toilets.) But whatever the students were washing off their hands ended up in the toilet bowls. 

The gray water was rarely gray. A red paint activity, using water-based tempura paint, meant red toilet water and the students loved it. Educationally, we hit two targets. One connected to the water-cycle, particularly urban waste-water treatment, and the other connected to water conservation, and re-use. Obviously the next field-trip was to the water treatment plant and its associated artificial wetlands.

I planned to extent this to the whole school, but left before I could. I heard my successor disconnected the scheme because he wanted to show touring parents clear water in the toilet-bowls.

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