Splashing and playing in Hamm

The children at the Johanniter nursery school in Hamm wanted nothing so much as a water-and-sand play area for the nursery school grounds. Thanks to the support of an employee of RWE AG and with funding from RWE Companius, this wish has now become a reality.

When designing and building the new play area in early May, the team of helpers paid special attention to the learning opportunities it was to provide. The water pump, for example, delivers only 1.2 litres of water at a time so that children are encouraged to treat water as a valuable resource. Yet there is still enough water for them to cool off in summer and the stream, which after flowing over natural stones runs into a gravel bed, is copious enough for there to be lots of fun and games.

RWE Companius presented the project as part of its winter programme and Jörg Reckers spontaneously signed up as a helper. “I think such projects are a great way of teaching children about water and solar energy,” says Reckers. Besides helping to build the water-and-sand play area, he also installed a photo-voltaic panel which supplies sufficient energy to pump water out of a rain pipe and into a rain butt.