North Texas ‘House of Bad Habits’ Featured in Water Awareness Campaign
North Texas Municipal Water District’s 2010 campaign launches June 8
WYLIE, Texas—This summer, the North Texas Municipal Water District (NTMWD) is introducing the neighbors you don’t want to meet.
The family lives in a typical North Texas suburban home, except with broken and misdirected sprinklers watering the street, an unmannered dog, and ill-behaved parents and children. This family is part of a new TV public service announcement intended to grab North Texans’ attention with some offensively bad habits, the worst offender being wasting water.
The bad habits theme in the PSA coincides with a summer-long water awareness and conservation campaign that also features “Bad Habits” outreach events and a Water Genius Contest.
“The campaign’s new PSA will begin airing June 8 and is intended to be a humorous reminder to North Texans to address their water-wasting habits,” said Jim Parks, executive director of the NTMWD. “Please follow your city’s watering schedule, repair or fix broken or misdirected sprinkler heads, and check and repair water leaks. It’s important to extend our region’s water supply, so we’re asking consumers to drop at least one bad water habit this summer, and please don’t waste our water.”
The NTMWD serves more than 1.6 million customers and uses Water IQ — an official state of Texas water education campaign — to help encourage residents and businesses to use water wisely and efficiently.
“Through five years of using the state’s Water IQ public education program, we’ve shared water-saving tips and hopefully improved consumers’ water use, so we thank North Texans for their efforts to conserve water,” Parks said. “Yet, so much more can be done to improve or eliminate water-wasting habits. With increasing population and unpredictable weather, wise and efficient use of our water supply should be a way of life.”
‘House of Bad Habits’ Visits Your City
In addition to the PSA, during NTMWD outreach events in member cities this summer, event visitors can write their bad or wasteful water habits on a special Water IQ graffiti fence that surrounds a backyard complete with grass and patio furniture. When people pledge to eliminate their bad water-use habits at the event, they will be eligible to win a Water IQ Bad Water Habits Makeover Kit, valued at $400. The kit contains items to help consumers use water wisely and efficiently in and outside their homes, including soaker hoses, low-flow shower heads, toilet repair kits, and water-wise plants. Event visitors can also play a Water IQ trivia game to win a reusable Water IQ water bottle.
For a list of upcoming Water IQ outreach events, please visit www.WaterIQ.org.
Have a Bad Water Habit? Turn Into a Water Genius.
The Water IQ Water Genius Contest also launches June 8, giving people a chance to change their wasteful water-use habits and turn themselves into Water Geniuses. This year, residents served by NTMWD can submit a water-wasting habit they have, along with a solution to that particular bad water-use habit.
A panel of judges will evaluate submissions based on the solution to the problem. Contest information and complete rules can be found at http://northtexas.wateriqknowyourwater.org/bad_habits.php. Entrants must be a resident in the service area of the North Texas Municipal Water District. They can enter online or in-person at the community outreach events. Ten people will win a prize — one grand-prize winner and nine runners-up.
About North Texas Municipal Water District
NTMWD directly serves the following cities and/or water supply agencies: Allen, Farmersville, Forney, Frisco, Garland, Mesquite, McKinney, Plano, Princeton, Richardson, Royse City, Rockwall, Wylie, Bonham, Caddo Basin S.U.D., Cash W.S.C., College Mound W.S.C., Copeville S.U.D., East Fork S.U.D., Fairview, Fate, Forney Lake W.S.C., Gastonia-Scurry S.U.D., Greater Texoma Utility Authority, Josephine, Kaufman, Kaufman Four-One, Lavon W.S.C., Little Elm, Lucas, Melissa, Milligan W.S.C., Mt. Zion W.S.C., Murphy, Nevada W.S.C., North Collin W.S.C., Parker, Prosper, Rose Hill S.U.D., Rowlett, Sachse, Seis Lagos M.U.D., Sunnyvale, Terrell and Wylie Northeast S.U.D.