Climate change is the general term used to describe long-term changes in temperature and weather patterns. These movements could be due to natural causes, such as oscillations in the solar cycle. However, human activities have been the primary cause of climate change since the 1800s, owing to the combustion of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and gas. The main emitters include energy, industry, transportation, buildings, agriculture, and land use.
Within this context, it is worth observing that for many years the Maltese Islands registered weather readings that are typical of the Mediterranean climate, with a moderate wet winter followed by a long dry summer. Normally, the air temperature is usually between 9.5 and 33 degrees Celsius. In the last few decades extreme temperatures of 1.4 and up to 43.8 degrees Celsius have been recorded. The annual mean temperature is 18.6 degrees Celsius, with mean maximum and lowest temperatures of 22.3 degrees Celsius and 14.9 degrees Celsius, respectively.
Staring in front of such challenges is no option! Savio College aspires to be an eco-friendly school taking on several initiatives to provide an alternative in front of such an environmental challenge. During these last three years, the students’ council has implemented several projects such as the use of timed flow press taps instead of conventional taps in order to save water and the planting of more than hundred indigenous trees and shrubs around the school grounds.
We did not stop here! The students’ council has observed for a number of years that gallons of water were being wasted when rainwater which falls on the huge football grounds runs away into the streets without being harvested.
Seeking the support of the Senior Leadership Team, members of the students’ council identified an abandoned cesspit constructed in the late 60s which could serve as a temporary water-harvesting area. Following extensive consultation with experts, the cesspit was cleaned and sanitized and rainwater was collected to be then pumped up immediately (using an an energy-saving submersible pump) in the main reservoir from where water for secondary sanitary use is taken up. The project has been financed by the LIFE 16 IPE MT008 Optimising the Implementation of the 2nd RBMP in the Malta River Basin District Action C.4 – Water Educational Campaign.
As a young generation we consider water to be the most precious source of life! Without it, nothing can survive. While reading through this article think about how you can save water at home, at work or at school. It is our duty! It is our responsibility!
Laydon Farrugia (11Y)
Vice School Captain
Samuel Bonello (10G)
President LEAF & Ekoskola Member