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Students at UEA encouraged to urinate in the shower in water saving campaign

First 15 students will be given £10 if they support the campaign

Helen Lock
Friday 10 October 2014 12:30 BST
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Two students at the University of East Anglia have started a campaign called #gowiththeflow encouraging their classmates on campus to urinate in the shower to save water.

The idea is that if everyone on the campus - around 15,000 students - peed in the shower in the morning they would each save the 12 litres of water used each time the toilet is flushed.

The two students, Chris Dobson and Debs Torr, want those taking part to announce their support on Facebook and Twitter, and the first 15 to do so will be offered a £10 gift voucher.

Chris said: “We’ve done the maths; the project stands to have a phenomenal impact. With 15,000 students at UEA, over a year we would save enough water to fill an Olympic size pool 26 times over. Imagine how big an impact it could have if we could get everyone in East Anglia, or even the UK, to change their morning habits.”

The pair are representing UEA in Npower’s Future Leader’s Challenge which encourages students to come up with an environmental initiative on campus. They said they were inspired by a similar initiative in Brazil by the eco-group SOS Mata Atlantica, who encourage people to urinate during their first shower of the day.

In East Anglia, saving water is even more important than in other places – the area receives a third less rainfall on average than the rest of England and has one of the highest rates of housing development.

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