A fitting project to mark World Book Day

Often, it would seem, the measure of a person is made not by what they say during the interview, but the collection of books on display in the background - many of which are suspiciously gathering dust. For myself, this often serves as a timely reminder that I need to read more books.  Apart from the odd holiday, it's very rare that I find the time (or the motivation) to pick up a good book, apart from reading about the trials and tribulations of Cyw, Llew, Plwmp, Bolgi, Zog and the Gruffalo to my 5-month-old as part of his bedtime routine.

At Welsh Water, we are thrilled to be able mark World Book Day a little differently this year.  Our Education Team have been engaging with some fantastic young creative pupils from Upper Rhymney Primary School. Their brief is to work alongside a local author and illustrator to produce a children's book on the theme of 'Let's Stop the Block', in reference to the impact of products that cause blockages in our sewer network. For the children, this presents a wonderful learning experience, provides them the opportunity to develop their literacy skills and a chance to think long and hard about the environment and sustainability. It also gives them a real sense of ownership of a book, the outcomes of which will help to shape the behaviour of future generations.

For us at Welsh Water, as well as the main theme of the book being particularly important to us as a not-for-profit company, the book also represents a successful co-production venture. The project is captured within the wider Water Resilient Communities project, which uses existing company services to develop a bespoke package of activities for project areas, to the benefit of local communities.  One of those project areas is Rhymney & Bargoed, where the company are investing £10 million in the water network. The book, and the process of creating the book, brings together a variety of colleagues, partners and organisations. It is the product of a joint approach by both ourselves at Welsh Water and the relevant Area Regeneration Team in Caerphilly County Borough Council. It utilises the support of the Parent Network in Bargoed and their P.E.T.R.A (Parents Engaging to Raise Aspirations) publishing enterprise, as well as our Education Team and our Waste Networks team to deliver the context and the insight. The stars of the show are of course the pupils themselves, who no doubt have the loudest voice when it comes to the outcomes of this piece of work. Once published, the books will be disseminated to schools and community hubs within our project areas. In my view, if there's ever an example of a company working with the community, for the benefit of the community - this is it.

Last week represented the start of the journey, with the first of 10 virtual sessions delivered to develop the book. It remains to be seen what weird and wonderful characters will appear in our sewers and what events will unfold. Only the parties involved in producing the book will be able to categorically state whether they are fact or fiction!