On May 7th 2026, 5th class went to the Kilconieron water treatment plant in Dunsadle. It was a warm, sunny day. First, we left the school at half past nine. Pat, the school bus driver, kindly brought us there. After we got off the bus Michael & Cathy Fox, Geraldine and some of the team from Glanua were there to greet us. Next, we were divided into two groups. Both groups learned how water gets filtered at the plant by using sand and then some chlorine is added and a scientist from Glanua determines if it is drinkable. We were informed that the water is constantly tested in terms of turbidity and PH levels. If the system fails, the staff will receive a message that the system is down. Additionally, they can store 2 days of water supply for the entire group scheme, that’s a lot of cubic meters.
When there is a storm and an electricity outage occurs, the plant now has a generator to ensure the well pump keeps running. 5 th Class were curious and asked lots of questions. The equipment for the water treatment plant would have cost around 1 million euro. Finally we were shown water meters and how to read them. After we completed the water treatment plant tour, an ice-cream van arrived. We excitedly lined up and looked at the great selection of ice-creams. We enjoyed them too!. We walked back to school through Carrabane Woods and surveyed the stream for water bugs. We were pleasantly surprised to find some shrimp, leeches, algae, water striders, frogspawn, tadpoles and a dragonfly.
We felt grateful when we came back to school and found really nice leather journals with an uisce symbolic logo and a pen awaiting us. We were inspired by the tagline on the journal, “ Water is precious– use it wisely!”
Someone in our class even came up with another one..
“Water is a Dream – Keep it Clean.“
By 5 th Class, St. Joseph’s N.S., Carrabane.
