Students helped staff from Environment Southland, the Invercargill City Council Waters department, Fulton Hogan and sponsor, the Sunrise Rotary Club, paint stormwater drains around the school perimeter with blue fish warnings to remind people the drain flowed directly to the Invercargill estuary.
Rotary Club of Invercargill Sunrise foundation director Philip Fraser said the club would be continuing on its quest to educate and inform the public how waterways were impacted when soaps and any toxic substances were discarded into the stormwater system.
"If you put some chemical things down there, then the fish die and it kills them out of the estuary."
It was also hoped people would begin to recognise the universal colour coding being progressively introduced. Blue represented drains, while green was cycle-ways and red was being adopted for pedestrian crossings.
School principal Peter Hopwood explained to the students about the stormwater system.
"So all those drains along the gutters, they’re really important to know that if you’re throwing stuff out of their house into the gutter, it’ll go down and out."
Some children would be traversing the estuary walk later in the week.
"We’re really lucky if we look after the estuary, it will always been there for kids to bike down past, and it’ll be healthy. We’ll see amazing things in there like fish, birds and plant life," Mr Hopwood said.
Mr Fraser said he hoped by involving children, they would become the educators in the school and homes.
Natalie Rosel said the easily identified blue fish mark initiative was started by her father Alan Watson four years ago, with a vision to see water quality improve — saving it for the next generation.
"What goes down the drains ends up in the ocean ... we’ve got to look after it or else we will lose it.
Mr Fraser said drains in Queens Park, ILT Stadium Southland and some high schools had already been marked with the distinctive blue fish symbol.
"I think it’s a really exciting project ... and eventually we’re going to do the whole city."
Donovan’s student-leaders said they had learned "heaps more about the drains and what it does to the river around the communities".
They initially believed the water went into the sewer system for treatment.
The group of student leaders would pass on what they learned about keeping the estuaries healthy to their peers at the school assembly.
- By Toni McDonald
