HCWA Asks Students to "Imagine a Day Without Water"
Can you imagine a day without water? Can you imagine a day void of bathing or showering, flushing the toilet, washing clothes, brushing your teeth, cooking or drinking? Water is the liquid of life. What would we do without it?
That’s the topic posed by the Henry County Water Authority (HCWA) to Henry County students through a county-wide Poster Contest. The water utility is asking these young customers how they would visually and creatively show others what it would be like to “Imagine a Day Without Water.”
The HCWA “Imagine a Day Without Water” Poster Contest is open to all Henry County students from grades K-12. Each winner in four age group categories – including Grades K-2nd, Grades 3rd-5th, Grades 6th-8th, and Grades 9th-12th– will receive a $100 gift card. The Authority is requesting one entry per student only, posters or artwork that must be 11”x17” in size, and paint, colored pencils, markers or crayons as the artistic tools of choice.
The deadline for entering the “Imagine a Day Without Water” Poster Contest is Oct. 23, which is the designated day of action nationally this year. Entry forms are available on the HCWA website (www.hcwa.com) on the “Imagine a Day Without Water” page within the Community and Education tab. Entry forms and artwork can be submitted by mail or by dropping them off at the HCWA Headquarters, attention: Lindsey Sanders, 1695 Highway 20 West, McDonough, GA 30253.
“Imagine a Day Without Water” is a national day of recognition on Wednesday October 23, 2019, which is intended to raise awareness about the essential and invaluable nature of public drinking water in our daily lives, as well as the importance of investments in water infrastructure.
The “Imagine a Day Without Water” event is a critical part of the ongoing Value of Water Campaign sponsored by the U.S. Water Alliance. This marks the fifth year of organizing this day of action, with over 1,100 organizations across the country taking part. Participants include water and sewer utilities such as the HCWA, elected officials and policy makers, contractors, civil engineers, schools, and many others.
Lindsey Sanders, HCWA Environmental Compliance Coordinator, says that a key message the Authority hopes to convey to young students through the Poster Contest is the importance of water conservation, which is an ongoing public education objective of the Authority’s.
“We hope students who participate in the Poster Contest will use their artistic creativity to visually convey the value of water and the importance of water conservation to protect these precious natural resources,” she says.
The HCWA is the public water and sewer utility for residents and businesses in Henry County, as well as some customers in neighboring jurisdictions. The Authority serves approximately 60,000 water metered customers, representing 174,000 consumers in a county of more than 213,000 citizens. The HCWA has approximately 1,347 miles of transmission and distribution water mains, 15 storage tanks with 28.9 million gallons of finished drinking water storage capacity, and two water treatment plants with a combined production capacity of 40.5 million gallons per day (MGD).
Yet, to accommodate growth and economic development in the community in the future, the Authority has a long-term capital improvement plan that will require an estimated $935 million in water and sewer infrastructure upgrades and/or expansion over the next 30 years.
Media contact:
Chris Wood, Ph.D.
P: 770-757-1681
E: chris@jwapr.com or john.wood@gcsu.edu
HCWA contact:
Lindsey Sanders
P: 678-583-3809
E: Lindsey.Sanders@hcwa.com