Imagine A Day Without Water Set For Oct. 21
It’s hard to fathom the current pandemic getting much worse, as day to day life has been severely altered over the course of the past 18 months. But imagine how the world would be different, especially during a pandemic, if we didn’t have water.
That topic has been posed by the Henry County Water Authority (HCWA) to Henry County Students, who are being challenged to create artwork to commemorate the water industry’s annual event titled: “Imagine A Day Without Water.”
The national Imagine A Day Without Water is Thursday Oct. 21, 2021, which also is the deadline for students to enter the HCWA’s third-annual art contest. The Authority’s staff of water professionals will judge the entries and recognize winners within four age group categories (for grades K-2nd, 3rd-5th, 6th-8th, and 9th-12th). Students entering the art contest will be submitting their creative ideas to convey the importance of water conservation and the protection of this most valuable natural resource.
The HCWA art contest is open to all Henry County Students – whether public, private, or home-schooled students – in grades K-12. Winners in each age group will receive a $100 gift card. In addition, all of the teachers responsible for having a student enter the HCWA art contest will be entered into a drawing for another $100 gift card.
Entry forms for the HCWA art contest are available on the HCWA website at www.hcwa.com, on the Imagine A Day Without Water page within the Community and Education section of the utility’s website. Entry forms and artwork can be submitted by mail or can be dropped off at the HCWA headquarters, attention: Lindsey Sanders, at 1695 Highway 20 West in McDonough, Georgia, 30253.
Imagine A Day Without Water is a national day of recognition designed to raise awareness of the value of water, the essential and invaluable nature of public drinking water, as well as the importance of investments into water system and utility infrastructure.
The Imagine A Day Without Water is a key event of the national Value of Water Campaign sponsored by the U.S. Water Alliance, which consists of industry members such as the American Water Works Association (AWWA) and the Water Environment Federation (WEF), as well as utilities, elected officials, policy makers, contractors, civil engineers, schools, and others. More than 1,100 organizations across the country are expected to celebrate the Imagine A Day Without Water event in some form this year.
As the water and sewer utility for residents and businesses in Henry County as well as a few neighboring jurisdictions, the HCWA serves approximately 60,000 metered water customers in a county of nearly 250,000 residents. The HCWA has approximately 1,347 miles of transmission and distribution 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 more than 40 million gallons per day (GPD).
However, because of Henry County’s continued, steady growth, the Authority is in the midst of a long-range Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) that will invest an estimated $935 million in water and sewer infrastructure upgrades and expansion to meet customer demand for water and sewer services over the next 30 years.
“In addition to providing the cleanest, safest drinking water and sewer services possible, we have to anticipate the demands of our customers 10, 20, 30 years from now,” says Lindy Farmer, HCWA General Manager. “We hope this event brings to light the importance for us to invest in our system to accommodate future growth, so we continue to enjoy our quality of life.”
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Media contact: Chris Wood, Ph.D.
P: 770-757-1681
E: chris@jwapr.com or john.wood@gcsu.edu