Students from St Cuan’s College in Castleblakeney and Portumna Community School were among the inspirational prize winners at the annual An Taisce Green Schools Water Awards.

The artistic Kira Mills from St. Cuan’s took home the top prize in the An Taisce Water Flag National Poster competition while students from Portumna were the Regional Water Ambassador runners up at the Dublin ceremony.

The annual event marks the eleventh year of Uisce Éireann’s sponsorship of An Taisce’s Green-Schools programme which supports schools working to gain a Green Flag under the water theme.

Throughout the current academic year, An Taisce has been engaging directly with 519 schools on the Water Flag, working with 142,820 students and 12,857 teachers across the country.

Uisce Éireann’s Geoffrey Bourke, who presented the awards alongside An Taisce’s Cathy Baxer was in awe of the students’ creativity and imagination.

“Those of us lucky enough to be in attendance could not help but be inspired by the children’s stories of how they worked together to protect the valuable water resource and how they inspired their communities to use less water. They are a great example to us all,” he said.

Cathy Baxter described it as ‘a privilege’ to be involved in these awards.

“They celebrate so much creativity and highlight the wide variety of ways we can create awareness and take action,” she said.

The Green-Schools water theme is a grassroots sponsorship that aims to foster awareness and understanding of a range of activities, tailored to students at both primary level and secondary level.

In addition to developing awareness around water conservation the sponsorship incorporates wider engagement around stewardship of our water resources, including raising awareness of the impacts of wastewater on inland and coastal waterways.

Pictured: Students from Portumna National School, with Cathy Baxter from An Taisce, and Geoffrey Bourke from Uisce Éireann at the Green-Schools Water Awards.