Feb 2024
Carlene Lyttle, Project Officer with Inishowen Rivers Trust giving a workshop on Sustainable Urban Drainage to pupils at Scoil Mhuire, Buncrana.
The students and their teacher, Ms. Gorney, gathered to hear Inishowen Rivers Trust discuss topics such as green roofs, permeable pavements and rain gardens to manage stormwater at its source to reduce the volume of water entering the sewerage system and potentially causing overflows into local streams and Lough Swilly.
One eager student counted 73 downpipes around the school grounds on a walkabout, which would transport quite a lot of rainwater to the stormwater system on a rainy day and could put pressure on the wastewater system. The students then imagined the difference 73 rain gardens would have on rainwater flows to the stormwater system and to the school grounds, if they were connected to all of the downpipes at the school.
The students, part of the Young Social Innovators network, were inspired to learn about SuDS as a result of the 2022 no swimming order at Lady’s Bay which is located close to the school grounds.
Carlene Lyttle & Sean Toland Project Officers with IRT
Sustainable Urban Drainage demonstration House
Students at Scoil Mhuire Buncrana
Highlight of the afternoon was the SuDS house which is a demonstration model of a house with a normal drainage system on one side and a SuDS drainage system on the other side. The students placed water into the rain cloud above the SuDS house and observed how the SuDS drainage system slowed the flow of water into the drainage system through the use of rain gardens, swales and green roofs.
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