Students at a university in Britain have been urged to urinate in the shower in order to save water. The BBC reports that two students at the University of East Anglia, which is based in the city on Norwich, are encouraging their peers to use their morning shower to also go to the toilet as part of a campaign called ‘Go with the Flow’.
One of the students, Chris Dobson, explained: “We’ve done the maths, and this 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-sized swimming 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 students claim that the university could save £125,000 per year if all 15,000 students took part.
Mr Dobson also said there was no need to worry about hygiene, claiming: “As long as the water is flowing there is no hygiene risk as urine is sterile,” however he did admit that some students are not comfortable with the idea.
“The campaign has been really divisive – people either seem to love it or hate it,” he said.
“We’re trying to challenge conventional behaviour, to start a debate on a resource that we largely take for granted.”
A spokeswoman for the university said they supported “students in their efforts in these initiatives and encouraged all forms of enterprising, entrepreneurial and employability activity.”
The University of East Anglia previously courted controversy when a series of hacked emails from its Climatic Research Unit appeared to show climate scientists manipulating data to make climate change look worse than it was, as well as discussing how to squeeze dissenting scientists out as peer reviewers.
The episode became known as ‘climategate’.
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