Charity's new mission to save water

Friday 29 May 2015

Durrell is now saving water as well as endangered species and has been on a mission to stop youngsters wasting it too.

The park has used a £40,000 donation from the RBC Blue Water Project to harvest its rainwater and keep a check on how much it’s using and staff have been visiting the Island's schools to pass on their water saving tips.

Durrell’s CEO Oliver Johnson said: “We are hugely grateful to the Royal Bank of Canada, this generous support has enabled us to introduce a range of methods with which we can monitor and reduce water use within the park; but it goes deeper than that, we're delighted to also be able to promote responsible water usage to Islanders both at the park and through our education programme.” 

The RBC Blue Water Project is a 10-year global commitment to help provide access to drinkable, swimmable, fishable water, now and for future generations and has helped Durrell splash out on some new water-saving initiatives.

The wildlife park’s toilets are now filled up with rainwater and there’s new guttering on the Orangutan enclosure to reduce water runoff. New storage tanks have been fitted to collect downfalls from other rooftops and water meters have been installed.

RBC Wealth Management’s Environmental Officer Francis Binney said: “Good water management is vital to any organisation that wishes to remain sustainable in the coming decades so it’s fantastic to be supporting Durrell in lowering the water and energy footprint and helping ensure their long term sustainability.”