Little sand timers have been introduced into the showers of all student accommodation in Hertford as part of an initiative to encourage students to be more conscious about their shower times.
JCR Rep Paavan Buddhdev, the instigator of the scheme, said, “Monitor your time spent showering, start cutting down that time, save water – and hence save the planet – and save time – and hence save your degree!”
Josh Platt, Hertford’s JCR President, commented, “The aim of the scheme is to make people think about how much water they’re using, rather than to actually stop them having longer showers if that’s what they want to do. They’ve been placed in all our annexes and I’m sure students will give them a go. Hopefully they will prove successful and improve the College’s green credentials too. Wat-er great idea, right?”
The idea was put to the JCR last term and was met by general approval.
Buddhdev told Cherwell, “I proposed and passed the motion through the JCR halfway through Hilary after getting the idea from the TEDx conference that happened in January – everyone who went to that was given one.”
“After putting mine up in my corridor’s bathroom, people living near me started talking about it, and even if they weren’t cutting their showers down to four minutes, they were at least becoming more aware of how long they were spending in the shower. The motion we passed last term was to buy them in bulk, and this term we’ve been plastering them everywhere. The response so far has definitely been positive.”
Second year Hertfordian Liz English remarked, “It’s a great idea to save water and time and it makes you feel extremely guilty if you’ve still got shampoo in your hair by the time the blue sand has all run out.”
