Last year, from the 8th to 15th of December, the three of us, Lucy Davidson, Renee Harris and Megan Threlfall, were privileged enough to go on the Otago Untouched World Foundation (UWF) Waterwise trip to Bannockburn along with Mrs Claman, Otago Girls' teacher representative.

We were joined by 22 other secondary and tertiary students from around Otago and six people from India, three students and three leaders, who travelled with the help of UNESCO to New Zealand specifically for the trip. We all embarked on the week-long trip with little knowledge of what was to come and left with a sense of achievement and motivation to promote better awareness of water-related issues within our lives.

The trip challenged our mindsets towards water sustainability within our school and home life, whilst also teaching us about current global water issues, which is a conversation not often addressed in class. The daily trips, which visited different business owners around Otago, such as Contact Energy, Carrick Winery, Central Wormworx and more, helped display to us the sense of community that can be achieved when others have common goals that align towards environmental sustainability. A wide range of tactics used by these local businesses to combat environmental issues regarding water usage was evaluated and we discussed these ideas with professionals, such as the Otago Regional Council.

One of our highlights was visiting the Clyde Dam and learning the mechanics behind how they generate renewable energy. We also enjoyed visiting a local cherry orchard where we found out that they use 70,000 litres of water daily! They also informed us of the shocking fact that just one kilogram of red meat takes on average roughly 17,000 litres of water to be produced.

After learning all this, and gaining invaluable experience from the week, we are really excited to implement new ideas within the school that can help with environmental sustainability.