An excursion to the waterworks of Stadtwerke Gießen (SWG) in Queckborn has been part of the holiday play programme of many local authorities in the region for several years. In summer 2013, hundreds of children once again took advantage of SWG's "Waterworks in Action" programme.
When the new school year begins, there will be a few more experts on the subject of water in the classrooms than before. On 17 dates, girls and boys between the ages of six and twelve learnt all the important facts about the number one foodstuff in a playful way at the Queckborn waterworks. Stadtwerke Gießen (SWG) once again invited children to the holiday games this year, and 12 municipalities in the district included the offer in their programme.
"Where does water come from, is it safe to drink and how does it get into households? This year, around 400 schoolchildren in Queckborn received answers to these and many other questions from our experts," explains Inge Debus from the Marketing & Sales department at Stadtwerke Gießen.
Under the sign of water
Over the past few weeks, the girls and boys have travelled to Queckborn from various places in the district for one morning each. As an introduction, they watched a film that gave them a first glimpse behind the scenes and illustrated the important role of drinking water in everyday life. The children then played a pantomime game to show where they use the number one foodstuff at home. The pupils mostly opted for showering, bathing, washing their hands and pressing the flush button on the toilet. They were spot on with this choice, as every Giessen resident uses around 66 litres per day for these activities. Far behind are cooking and drinking with a total of only around four litres.
Sporting challenge
A competition - the Water Olympics - concluded the excursion day in Queckborn. The children competed against each other in various disciplines on the grounds of the waterworks. In the "Save the fish" game, the topic of "Water pollution and how to combat it" was on the programme. The six to twelve-year-olds also had to demonstrate their sporting skills - on a water course with various obstacles, where the motto was: Every drop is precious. "This year we had perfect summer weather for our holiday games and the games with water went down really well with all the kids in these temperatures," emphasised Inge Debus.