Would you drink a glass of slurry...?!

Most schoolchildren are aware that keeping the water clean is important, but there's usually one in a class who doesn't think about it... So what Brenda Montgomery, an environmental protection officer with Shannon Regional Fisheries Board, does is invite that one to drink a glass of slurry. Brenda runs the Lough Sheelin Water Is Life education project with 65 primary schools in this area: "If there's one who thinks water quality is not important I pour a pint glass of slurry and invite them to drink it and they're horrified!," she says. The idea is to get straight to the kids' imaginations, to get their attention and make sure they're listening. Brenda asks what they use water for and finds that - probably in common with the rest of the population - they haven't thought about it much, so she sets out to "make them aware of water and how important it is to keep it clean". "I ask what lakes are close to them and what's in them, and they haven't a clue. I ask if fish have teeth; they don't know or say no, so I mention Jaws and tell them a great white shark has 10,000 teeth. I tell them about basking sharks (common in Irish waters), the Greenland shark whose eyes glow in the dark... they get totally worked up about sharks. It gets them livened up." Brenda uses a poster depicting all the fish commonly found in Ireland to explain the anatomy of a fish. She explains their habits and characteristics and compares them to the goldfish many children have at home, and how pollution caused by human habits and activities affects them. "I get them to name the fish in the lake and most can name the pike - known as the waterwolf because of its diet - but they don't know many others. I tell them that the snibs from drinks cans can get caught in the gills, or the fish can get caught in the plastic rings from a six-pack." Using the kind of language and imagery that appeal to primary school age children, Brenda explains that a fish can't reverse... if it gets in a plastic bag, it'll keep going until it gets wrapped around it. The way she explains the effect of slurry on the water is to make it into a story: "The fish die in slurry, well why do they die? In a lake there's a lot of different plants and fish and other animals and the smallest of everything is bacteria. His job is to clean up, so if you put a bucket of slurry in the water the bacteria will go over to it and eat it and clean it up, but if you put a huge amount in there's too much. So they reproduce by billions and they use all the oxygen in the water and there's none left for the fish. They die, and that's a fish kill." She puts it all in stories and puts the children at the centre of them. Brenda has noticed significant differences in town and country children. Explaining that as part of her job as environmental protection officer she spends a month in Portlaoise Prison training with the officers to learn about dealing with offenders, she invites questions. "I say it's because if you go to someone who has a pollution problem, would they be pleased so see you? No, they might attack you, but what with? The town children will say laser guns or taser guns or nuclear weapons. But the country children, particularly one little boy in Mullahoran, would say get a ball of dung, let it dry on the wall for a few weeks to make sure it's good and hard, and you might put a stone in it, and you'd hurl it... or you'd get a bull!" Dealing with many topics, from invasive species such as the zebra mussel, the chub or the hog weed, to the legend of Lough Sheelin (it means fairy pool) and the Mayfly, which lives for only a day once it hatches, Brenda concludes her presentations by returning to the central theme: pollution. "I tell them a pollution offence carries a prison sentence. It could be six months in Castlerea, and I ask the children if they think I'm horrible and most will agree that I am. So I produce my pint glass of slurry again and put it in front of them, and say if you think pollution's not so bad go ahead and drink that... and they're horrified. "Then they say the punishment should be more severe." The Lough Sheelin Water is Life project raises awareness of environmental damage to the waterways when the children are young, which means the message should stay with them as they mature - and they take it home to their parents and other family members too. Helping get the communities involved with the children in the 65 schools is the art, photography, essay and poetry competition, on themes such as thinking about how we use water and the life cycle of a trout or an eel. This year it received 7,000 entries, which were displayed at Crover House Hotel on May 28, when the presentations were made to the prize winners. • If your school would like to sign up for Water is Life, contact Brenda Montgomery, environmental protection officer, Shannon Regional Fisheries Board, brendamy@eircom.net, 087-2141500.