Students of Maria Regina College Secondary School (Zokrija, Mosta) have long dreamt of attaining sustainability in managing the school’s aquaculture programme as well as the irrigation system. Thanks to funding from HSBC Malta, the school has now implemented a project that spawns not just fish, but a whole new cycle of life.
A new reservoir with a capacity of 1,000 litres has been placed on the school’s terrace, from where harvested rainwater will be directed into a filtered pond of fish. But that’s not all. Waste water from this pond will be fed into the irrigation system thus recycling water and giving plants rich organic nutrients. Previously, the school’s water well has been non-functional and it faced difficulties in promoting aquaculture and horticulture.
Meanwhile, students of Maria Regina College Mosta Secondary (formerly Lily of the Valley) too proposed their own project to the HSBC Water Programme – Catch the Drop and saw it completed last week.
This project recovers rainwater currently lost to flooding and directs it to a water tank and a water filter via a 30m deep borehole. The system is very low cost and runs on another of nature’s remarkable forces: gravity. Some of the collected rainwater will be utilised to water plants in and around the school. The project is expected to expand students’ idea of sustainability as they will be encouraged to monitor the newly-placed recycling system every scholastic year.
Both Mosta projects were inaugurated recently by Minister Evarist Bartolo in the presence of officials from HSBC Malta and HSBC Water Programme – Catch the Drop, College officials and Mosta Local Council members.
The HSBC Water Programme – Catch the Drop was launched in 2013 as Malta’s largest-ever educational campaign. It aims to build a water-literate Malta by involving all segments of the society, particularly the student population.