Visitors Enjoy Wonders Of Water At The Silent Valley

The ‘Wonders of Water’ brought to life at Silent Valley Mountain Park.

Northern Ireland Water hosted two free events in the scenic Silent Valley Mountain Park, as part of the NI Science Festival.

Eimear, Anna, Christine, Tom and Aoibhin from Cabra at NI Water’s Silent Valley Mountain Park.

Visitors enjoyed live demonstrations at ‘The Marvel of Cleaning Water’ event and took part in activities including making sand water filters to clean dirty water and ‘building’ the Mourne Wall.

Visitors also learnt about the water cycle, where water comes from and how our water and wastewater is cleaned. It was also an opportunity to remind everyone about what not to flush down the toilet and to flush only the 3P’s: Pee, Poo and Paper.

Pupils from Holy Cross Primary School in Attical, Kilkeel, with NI Water Education Officer, Pat McAuley.

Anna Killen, NI Water’s Outreach and Learning Officer said: “One of the experiments on how to clean water was led by NI Water scientist, Roisin McDade. The audience got a chance to roll up their sleeves and learn how drinking water is cleaned. Families also got a chance to see sewage sludge up close through a microscope, and see the types of bacteria that live in our wastewater.”

NI Water’s Education team supported the final closing day of the Science Festival, fronting a stand at the Whitla Hall, Queens University, before a talk by the scientist and TV presenter, Liz Bonnin on the global problem of plastic pollution.

NI Water is committed to raising awareness of marine pollution, encouraging people to buy a reusable water bottle and refilling it from the tap. Every bottle refilled means one less plastic bottle potentially ending up in our oceans.

Ruby, Lucy and Michelle Johnston from Newcastle enjoying their visit to Silent Valley.