The study was conducted on 32 elementary schools in socially deprived areas of two German cities. The average age of each child in the study was eight years old. The study separated the schools into two groups, an intervention group and a control group. In the intervention group schools drinking water fountains were installed and teachers presented lessons to the children to encourage water intake. The control group did not receive any water fountains or any lessons on healthy water consumption.

The results showed that the risk of children becoming overweight in the intervention group was reduced by 31% compared with the control group and water consumption increased by 1.1 glasses per day in the intervention group.

The conclusion of the study was, “Our environmental and educational, school-based intervention proved to be effective in the prevention of overweight among children in elementary school, even in a population from socially deprived areas.”

If having more drinking water fountains installed in schools can make this much of a difference to the prevention of obesity, it would make sense to encourage every school to have a sensible number of drinking water fountains installed and to monitor the number of current fountains to ensure there are enough for the number of children who attend the school. It is also important to ensure the current water fountains are maintained and replaced if faulty for health and safety reasons. It’s vital to ensure children are taught about how to stay healthy with regular water intake from an early age so they are equipped with the knowledge for the rest of their lives.

For any information on drinking water fountains or to speak to someone about having a water fountain installed please contact us on contact@drinkingwaterfountains.co.uk or 0845 500 4455.

The first was from a school in Lincoln who are looking to be able to provide drinking water for all children in each classroom. The Victorian primary school was looking to replace aged sinks in each classroom with a simple wall mounted fountain sink. This simple unit has very small dimensions and simply has a bubbler for children to drink from.

With wall mounted sinks the drinking water comes straight from the mains supply, is passed through a water filter if required and comes out of the bubbler when a simple button us depressed. The basic form of wall mounted sink has no chilling unit and therefore the water comes out of the bubbler at mains water temperature.

The second enquiry was for an outdoor freestanding water fountain for the centre of a childrens playground. This area of a primary school was being redeveloped and the contractor in charge of works was able to make provision for mains-fed water and waste to be taken to a central area under the main asphalt area.

There are a number of fountains built in the UK that are suited to high usage external environments. We were able to source three specific fountains that fitted the remit including one that has been specifically developed for a primary school where the drinking area is at 800mm rather than the more standard 1 metre suited to adults.

We were able to provide the contractor with detailed installation information in advance of the construction detail being completed within a one hour framework.

For more detail on our drinking water solutions for schools and the wider education sector please call us or email contact@drinkingwaterfountains.co.uk.

DrinkingWaterFountains.co.uk™ – 0845 500 4455
contact@drinkingwaterfountains.co.uk
www.drinkingwaterfountains.co.uk