Hundreds of Grade 4 students from across Grey and Bruce Counties have been getting hands-on learning about water, conservation, and the environment.
It's all part of the 15th Annual Grey-Bruce Children's Water Festival being held at the Chesley Community Centre, a three day interactive festival promoting water education.
Nancy Griffin is with the Saugeen Valley Conservation Authority and also the vice-chair of the festival. She stresses the importance of such an event for younger generations.
"One of the most important things that we try to put forward is the idea that every year we're producing at least 2,000 new water stewards, people who are going to be out there looking after our water resources, making certain the water is clean, that we conserve our water and that we learn to protect it," says Griffin.
The Annual Grey-Bruce Children's Water Festival is put on by the Saugeen Valley Conservation Authority, the Grey-Sauble Conservation Authority along with countless volunteers and includes a number of tents and pavilions with educational demonstrations that the children can not only watch, but get involved with hands-on.
"It's an excellent educational tool for the [the children]; they learn so much about water conservation, all levels of it, and the more hands-on you can do it, the better it sinks in for them. It gives a very good visual, it works very well and it engages them," says Carl Sadler of the Grey-Sauble Conservation Authority.
The children learn so much about water, whether it's flushing the toilet, washing dishes, taking a shower, brushing your teeth, watering the garden; the children take away crucial information about where the water comes from, where it goes and how they can protect it, all within a fun, interactive environment.
"We have hands-on activities that get the kids involved and looking at how we use water daily in our lives and how we can all look after it, how we can look after the resources, how we can protect them and ensure that they're going to be around for future generations," says Griffin.
The 15th Annual Grey-Bruce Children's Water Festival wraps up later on Thursday.
