Whizzy combines fun and education on World Water Day

Published on 22 March 2022

Tuesday 22 March is World Water Day and MidCoast Council is using the opportunity to educate people about where their water comes from.

With groundwater the theme in 2022, Council has teamed up with much-loved local water-saving mascot, Whizzy the Waterdrop, to produce a video that uses chocolate, ice cream and lemonade to demonstrate how an aquifer works.

Council’s Director of Infrastructure and Engineering Services, Rob Scott, said it was a fun and simple way to explain the science behind a resource we rely on every day.

“Because it’s largely hidden away underground, groundwater isn’t something that people necessarily know a lot about,” said Mr Scott.   

“In this video, Whizzy and our Water Process Engineer, Patrick Duiveman, do a great job of showing what an aquifer is and how we access the groundwater inside it.

“We’ve taken a light-hearted approach to showing people how groundwater fits into our water supply system.”

To check out the video, visit https://youtu.be/sG2PK89Fnjg

Mr Scott acknowledged it could be a difficult time for some people to talk about water, given the devastation recent flooding had caused along the East Coast.

“We understand the extreme wet weather we’ve experienced over the past 12 months has had a terrible impact on a lot of people’s lives.

“At the same time, it’s only been just over two years since we lived through one of the worst droughts on record and we know we’ll face droughts again in the future.

“These extreme weather events are all part of the same conversation and groundwater is a big part of that conversation. During the drought, our aquifers at Nabiac and Tea Gardens played a critical role in ensuring we didn’t run out of water. Now with all this rain we’ve been having, our aquifers have filled back up and will once again be crucial to our water security the next time we face a dry spell.

“We’re on a mission to help the community better understand where our water comes from and how these events are connected. World Water Day provides a great opportunity to share these messages.”

World Water Day is an annual United Nations Observance that focuses on the importance of water. To find out more, visit https://www.worldwaterday.org/  

To learn more about the MidCoast’s water supplies, visit www.midcoast.nsw.gov.au/watersupply