Gilroy’s DeBell Uvas Creek Park Preserve will see the installation of a hydration station designed to fill reusable water bottles by Dec. 31, as part of a $504,000 countywide initiative to increase access to safe, clean tap water and fight childhood obesity.
The Santa Clara County Public Health Department, alongside health education nonprofit group FIRST 5 of Santa Clara County and the Santa Clara Valley Water District, will be installing a total of 100 water filling stations over the next three years. Gilroy is one of seven pilot cities that will be the first to receive a water station. It will be installed at the trailhead of the preserve adjacent to Ascension Solorsano Middle School, with 24 more expected to be built across Campbell, San Jose, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Los Altos Hills and Santa Clara by the end of the year. The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors allocated $125,000 for the program, dubbed ‘Water to Go,’ to install the first 25 hydration stations for residents.
“Increasing water consumption in our community starts by providing fresh, accessible and free water to young children as early as possible,” said FIRST 5 of Santa Clara County CEO Jolene Smith. “Placing these water stations at preschools, schools and other public spaces where children and families gather helps our youngest residents drink healthy, start healthy and stay healthy.”
According to a press release, the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority will install the first 25 stations by Dec. 31 in areas where “a high volume of families and children gather.” FIRST 5 also allocated $125,000 from its community investment budget to install 25 stations in schools and child care centers by June 30, 2014. The Santa Clara Valley Water District has committed $254,000 from the Safe, Clean Water and Natural Flood Protection Program – also known as Measure B – to install 50 other stations over the next three years, since voters approved the measure in 2012.
Pointing to “over-consumption of sugar-loaded beverages” as a major contributor to child and adult obesity, Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors President Ken Yeager said in his January state of the county address that hydration stations have shown promise in encouraging increased water consumption.
In 2012, Santa Clara County voters approved Measure B, earmarking funds through the renewal of a parcel tax to install up to 250 hydration stations in local schools.
“Almost one in four children in Santa Clara County are overweight or obese,” Yeager said. “Obese children have a higher risk of developing high blood pressure, high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes and other serious illnesses that will affect them into adulthood. If we don’t reverse this trend, this generation of children will likely live shorter lives than their parents.”
“If we are going to ask children and youth to give up sugar-loaded beverages, we need to offer them a good alternative,” Yeager added.
