Kaniva College students Louise Hobbs and Jaden Hendy have been working for the past two years to get the project up and running.

They have now installed a small water tank in the town for residents and visitors to fill up their drink bottles.

The tank will open on November 2 from 2pm.

Louise said the project started in 2014, when the college’s year nine student entered the Caring for Our Watersheds competition – an annual competition that is open to all schools in south-west Victoria.

Louise and Jaden, along with other students Duncan Shalders and Luke Grosser, won the competition with their project #KanivaWater 

Their project’s aim was to minimise the environmental effects of bottled water by providing a location where people can obtain drinking water within the town. 

While the competition does not require students to implement their projects, Louise and Jaden wanted to take on the challenge. 

Louise said it was great to see the project finally completed.

“We encourage people from the community to come along for the opening – it’s going to be really good for Kaniva,” she said.

“It will give the town a big boost and have a positive effect on everyone’s life.

“After travelling to places like Melbourne, I would always see places to fill up water bottles. 

“We thought it would be cool in Kaniva had something like that.”

Louise said the project involved more work than the students anticipated. 

“We had to write risk assessments and talk to the Department of Health and GWMWater,” she said.

“We had to find sponsors for the tank and attend council meetings.”

Louise said her and Jaden would like to thank their teacher David Staehr for his help with the project.

“He made this possible – when everyone else said no, he said yes,” she said. 

She said the project name #KanivaWater encouraged people using the fountain to take a selfie and promote it and Kaniva on social media, using the hashtag.