News

To Celebrate World Book day, we've given away hundreds of copies of our children’s book, which helps customers across Birmingham understand where their water comes from and about what is happening to improve water supplies across the city and surrounding suburbs.  Justin Crilly, from our community education team, visited Sladefield Infant School in Birmingham to present copies to the children.

The book and the story are all part of our biggest ever project, as Justin explains: “’Brummies’ are really proud of their wonderful water from Wales which has been supplied to Birmingham via the Elan Valley Aqueduct for over 100 years.  The time has come to provide extra support for the EVA to make sure that it can continue to provide service for future generations, so we’re creating a new backup supply for the city.  We’ll use this back-up supply every now and then, so engineers can get inside and do maintenance work on the EVA. 
During these maintenance periods people in the City and surrounding areas may notice a slight change in their water supply as the water will be from a different source.

“This is quite a complicated subject, and we thought long and hard about how we could make it easy to understand.  So we came up with the idea of a childrens’ book, and this week, to celebrate World Book Day, we’ve given away copies to the children at Sladefield Infant School in Birmingham, and the children loved it! 

“Arthur and the genie go on a journey through time to see how the EVA was built, what’s happening to it right now and what it means for the future.  We’re really excited about this – we think it’s a great way to explain one of our greatest engineering projects in a fun way.  Over the last year or so, we’ve sent out thousands of free copies - to every school, hospital and library in the city and surrounding areas where the project will mean temporary changes in the water supply source.  We hope that everyone loves it as much as we do, and we really hope it will reassure people about the project and what we’re doing.”

Rob Meadows, Head Teacher at the school, said: “What a great way to introduce this fabulous new book, ‘Arthur Jones and the Genie of the Tap’!  I know the children at Sladefield will be
really excited to find out where water comes from and how and sharing their book with their families at home, which will mean that even more people get to find out about the work that Severn Trent do.

“The important work that Severn Trent are doing in creating a back-up supply is vital as I know that water in the local area is considered the best in the country, and we want our future generations to enjoy this water in the way that we do now.

“I thank colleagues from Severn Trent for coming to Sladefield and sharing with the children their future work in such an exciting and interesting way; the children really enjoyed the experience they provided.”

You can read an on line version of the book and find out more about the Birmingham Resilience Project and what is happening here.