Water

www.wateraid.org - EXTERNAL LINK: WaterAid Website

www.belu.org - EXTERNAL LINK: Belu have a passion for pure water! Their bottled water (sourced in Wales) is contained in compostable bottles (made from corn) and 100% of the company's profits go towards clean water projects in Mali & India.

Thoughts on Grey Water - (PDF download); an essay produced by David Wick from Spiral Sun Solar Showers

Click here for Environmental Legislation (PDF download); a factsheet produced by our own Ben Challis.

Water is Life

Festivals, particularly those lasting for a number of days can use considerable amounts of water. This may be through showers, drinking taps and wash basins, as well as water provided for catering etc. The environmental effects of festivals with regard to water could be in the form of unnecessary wasted water, poor disposal of waste water, and potential pollution of water courses.

Festival organisers might consider:

  • Encourage festival goers to minimise water wastage. Use taps which turn of automatically when not in use, e.g. pump powered taps.
  • Ensure traders use only eco-friendly cleaning products.
  • Provide waste water containers so that contaminated water is not poured on the floor.
  • Consider water conditioning to minimise detergent requirements and have a positive impact through the water that it used on site. Check out Dileka.
  • Source bottled water from ethical sources - and preferably local sources. Check out Frank (EXTERNAL LINK: news article on bbc.co.uk).

From an internet survey of 649 festival visitors the following was found with regards to attitudes to water wastage at events:

  • Water wastage seems to be the least concerning impact to festival visitors with 36% agreeing or strongly agreeing.

We take measures to prevent pollution of any water courses.
Nick Ladd ‘Glade Festival’

When asked whether all festival organisers should implement environmentally friendly practices 2% of the comments made by festival goers related to conservation of water.

Nigel Griffiths (Senior lecturer at BCUC, deliverer of Environmental Awareness courses for local businesses, and judge for the European Blue Flag Award for beaches) refers to the rising costs of energy, water and waste disposal as a factor that means all businesses need to conserve such resources for good business practice as well as the environmental factors.