Anglian Water contract for MIW

Anglian Water is one water supply company that takes community health seriously.  And that’s one of the reasons they awarded a contract to MIW to supply water coolers for schools in their territory.

Drinking water for schools is a very significant health issue and Anglian set out to ensure that school children had a ready supply of the water needed to keep them healthy and alert in the classroom.

They selected three schools for a pilot program in the company’s Water for Health campaign with the aim of researching, designing and testing a package of measures to improve the supply of drinking water in schools.

The research began with a survey of the drinking water facilities then in place. The second phase was a series of focus groups with students to canvass their views on drinking water and their suggestions for improving supply and increasing consumption.

Working with the focus groups, Anglian produced a questionnaire which was sent to more than 3500 students.

The responses were startling: almost a quarter of the children surveyed did not drink water at all during the school day and only 1% drank the recommended eight glasses a day.

Significantly, 55% of the students said they didn’t drink water because it wasn’t easy to obtain and 77% wanted water coolers, with most of these wanting to have refillable bottles available for sale in the school.

After new coolers were installed in the schools on the pilot scheme, a new survey showed an astonishing 83% of students now found it easier to drink water for free and 39% were drinking more water.

The result of the pilot scheme was the introduction of two promotions for drinking water: AW Fresh for secondary schools and Captain Splosh for primary schools.  These campaigns were run in tandem with the installation of new mains-fed chilled water dispensers in every school and the availability of refillable bottles at a price subsidised by Anglian Water.

MIW is proud to have been chosen to supply the water coolers for the program, beating off a number of major players to win the contract.

MIW also works closely with Anglian in the provision of drinking water in care homes for the elderly under its Health on Tap program.  A survey of care homes before and after the installation of new water coolers showed major improvements in the health of residents.