THE producers of Lucozade and Ribena, Suntory Beverage and Food GB&I concluded a series of workshops about water stewardship as part of its ‘Mizuiku’ programme in partnership with Severn Rivers Trust.

The Japanese programme aims to teach younger generations about where their water comes from and how we can preserve it for the future.

Over 1,110 children and adults took part in five locations across the River Severn this year.

The programme started in Japan 21 years ago, Mizuiku has since expanded to seven other countries, with tailored initiatives for each location and over 580,000 people across the world have taken part since it first began.

With new locations and workshop content introduced to the programme in 2024, SBF and GB&I aimed to reach over one thousand people around the River Severn this year, and have achieved and exceeded this goal.

The workshops cover topics such as the water cycle, impacts or river pollution, local water problems and ecosystems and biodiversity linked to water.

The workshops followed multiple themes, including:

River Wildlife, where people got to acknowledge the culture of environmental sustainability and how to take daily action, whilst understanding the problems across the River Severn, and the ecosystems and biodiversity linked to water.

Another theme was on Eco Detective where people explored the different types and impacts of river pollution whilst experiencing using chemical test kits for water quality and their importance and discovering how water moves across different landscapes.

One of the themes looked at Wonderful Water and the importance of the water cycle and the properties of water, the importance of groundwater and woodlands in the water cycle and promoting responsible use of water resources: water for future generations.

The last workshop was the Water Hero Academy, where people can understand the threat climate change presents to our rivers. Learning how we can protect our watercourses using green spaces, sustainable urban drainage systems and wildlife surveys and highlighting how participants can become community water heroes to help protect our watercourses.

The River Severn and its tributaries run close to where SBF GB&I’s factory is based in Coleford, Gloucestershire.

“The staff were fantastic, they were friendly, helpful and knew how to encourage the children to get involved. It was such a varied workshop . This really was fantastic, wouldn’t it be wonderful if school could be as practical and creative as this all the time,” said from a local participant at the workshop.