Geography
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Water Filters
Water conservation at the Fountains Abbey Visitor Centre
(Adapted from 'Water Matters: a resource pack for Key Stage 2' produced by the National Trust and Yorkshire Water)


The National Trust purchased Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal Water Garden in Yorkshire's Skell valley in 1983. A Visitor Centre was designed to manage the large numbers of visitors to the estate - 300,000 annually - and encourage them to visit the Centre before going on to explore the Abbey and the rest of the estate. Yorkshire Water worked closely with the National Trust to manage water supplies at the Visitor Centre, which was opened in 1992.





Try our Test
The gents' urinals in the Visitor Centre used to be flushed by four 9-litre cisterns. The cisterns had no controls and flushed approximately once every 5 minutes.
[Click on one answer]



 

What volume of water was used per day to flush the urinals?
A) 103680 litres
B) 864 litres
C) 432 litres
D) 10368 litres
What was the daily cost to the National Trust if a unit (1000 litres) of water costs 50 pence?
A) £2.16
B) £5.184
C) £207.36
D) 43.2p

Yorkshire Water advised the National Trust to fit a control system in the gents' urinals that allows the cisterns to flush once every 20 minutes over an 8-hour period. For the rest of the day there is a single 'hygienic' flush.

What is the volume of water used per day using the control system?
A) 108 litres
B) 900 litres
C) 864 litres
D) 5796 litres
What would be the daily cost of this water?
A) 17.28p
B) £28.98
C) £18
D) 45p
What is the saving to the National Trust per day?
A) £4.734
B) £23.796
C) 68.4p
D) £489.42

The cost of installing the control unit was approximately £470

How long (approximately) did it take for the installation to pay for itself?
A) 1 week
B) 1 month
C) 5 years
D) 3 months