More than 100,000 school pupils across Scotland have taken part in Scottish Water's Generation H2O education programme, as the initiative continues to expand its reach in classrooms across the country.

Launched three years ago, the programme has now been introduced in more than 1,000 schools, with teachers in urban, rural and island communities using lesson materials designed to encourage young people to value and protect Scotland's water resources.

Scottish Water said the programme has reached 112,000 pupils of all ages through downloadable classroom content, with 1,550 teachers from 1,082 schools now registered. The utility aims to have Generation H2O delivered in half of Scotland's schools by next year as demand for the lessons continues to grow.

-- Advertisement --

Scottish Water Chief Executive Alex Plant said the programme is helping to change how young people think about one of the country's most important natural resources.

"There is a quiet but profound revolution taking place in our classrooms in terms of how young people think about our country’s water. They increasingly recognise it as a very precious natural resource and, growing up in an era when the environment we depend on is under extreme pressure from a changed climate, realise that we need to look after it carefully.

"We are excited to see so many teachers downloading the content to engage their pupils on how to be brilliant custodians of our nation’s water – not just now but well into the years ahead.

"The fact that these lessons are being delivered and enjoyed in schools in our biggest cities and our smallest island communities indicates a growing understanding that we can all make a difference."

The programme has been rolled out in schools of all sizes across Scotland. Holyrood Secondary School in Glasgow, with more than 2,280 pupils, is the largest school to take part, while Crawford Primary in Biggar, with just 10 pupils, is the smallest.

Blackness Primary School in Dundee delivered the lessons to all 340 of its pupils, while on the Inner Hebridean island of Gigha, seven of the school's 10 pupils completed the programme and visited the local water treatment works that serves the island's population of almost 200 residents.