The distribution of free reusable water bottles to students in Bologna began yesterday, 10 December, and is expected to continue until February 2021. The idea behind this initiative is to promote the importance of water consumption for healthy lifestyles but also to increase awareness about the centrality of water as an environmental resource and life-sustaining force.
We should not take water and its availability for granted
The Municipality of Bologna has purchased 20 000 of these bottles for its youngest residents and the first beneficiaries were the girls and boys from the Bottego, Longhena, Cremonini Ongaro and Don Marella primary schools.
In the words of the Bologna deputy mayor Valentina Orioli and the councilor of the School Susanna Zaccaria, “The water bottle is not just a gift, but a concrete way to talk about water saving in the classroom and to educate children about sustainability in everyday life“.
The money for these gifts came from the Interministerial Fund for organic-food canteens, which is also dedicated to providing resources towards implementing healthier meals in the school cafeterias. If you think about it, choosing pure, unadulterated water is an inseparable component of a healthy diet and healthy living.
Kids tend to fall for the addictive charms of sugar, which is readily available to them in the form of fruit juices and fizzy drinks and thus they get into an undesirable habit that gets harder to shake off later in life and can lead to health problems.
The bottles are accompanied by illustrated brochures which inform the pupils how to correctly use them in order to avoid contamination and practice good hygiene. Furthermore, two fun activities that will teach the importance of water have been planned.
The first is an online game, quiz and discovery for children aged 8 to 10, which will take place on Monday, 14 December (5:15-6:00 pm). The second will be an online conversation broadcasted on the Good for Food YouTube channel on 15 December (5:30-6:30 pm), which will discuss the issue of water scarcity and the so-called ‘water footprint’.
Source: TheMayor.EU
