UNICEF and Children's Rights

Kids and Water

KIDPROJ UNICEF02 ---------------- From W.J.Parks@durham.ac.uk Mon Dec 20 03:16:34 1993 ====================================================================== WEEK 2: KIDS and WATER Aim: to get kids and adults thinking about the part water plays in our daily lives and our access to water. - - - - - - - - (1) USES OF WATER. Over a couple of days this week record all the ways you and your family use water; How much, approximately do you use (e.g. how many mug-fulls)? Do your friends use more or less than you? How about your KIDLINK friends elsewhere? How much do their families use? Produce a list of uses. Water shortage can occur in many parts of the world, not just in developing countries. Can you remember when there was a water shortage in your neighbourhood? Can your parents/teachers? How did you/they cope? What did you have to do to get water/conserve water? - - - - - - - - (2) WATER AND HEALTH. Water is the source of life. Without it we would die. Yet water which is dirty may also make us very sick. So we must make sure our water is kept clean and pure. If you were living in an area which did not have clean water, how would you go about getting the water clean? Name some ways... In what ways can water supplies become polluted? What would you do to stop these sources of pollution? Find out about some diseases that humans can catch from water. How can we stop water supplies becoming infected with these diseases? Imagine you lived in an area where clean water was hard to find. Write a diary about how you managed to collect water, how you managed to clean it, and what you used it for? e.g. there's a nearby river, lake, stream etc. Imagine your in charge of local water supplies. Discuss what you have to check every day, what complaints you might have to answer etc. - - - - - - - - (3) WATER IS LIFE. Two-thirds of our body weight is water. We can go for two weeks or more without solid food, but will die in two or three days if we do not replenish our body fluids with water or other substitutes which have a high water content. Water seems plentiful, covering about three-quarters of the earth's surface, but most of it is salt water in oceans or frozen in polar regions. The fresh water needed by humans is less than 1% of the world's supply and even that is unequally distributed. Water is necessary for all forms of life, and although there sometimes seems to be more water than usual, the amount of water in the world stays the same though it may be in different forms. So where does it come from? And where does water go/collect? How can we use water more sparingly? Imagine you have been shipwrecked on a tropical desert island (Bill wishes he was!). The island is about one and a half kilometres long and three-quarters of a kilometre wide. There is lots of vegetation on the island but very little to eat except bananas and coconuts. There is no sign of surface water. The fish are difficult to catch and there are ravenous sharks not far from the shore. There is no hope of getting off the island, but fortunately some useful wreckage from the ship has been washed ashore: a spade; an axe; a towel; an empty oil drum; a fifteen-litre plastic container half full of drinking water; a two-metre-square piece of plastic sheeting; a tin of ship's biscuits; a watertight package containing seeds for tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, onions and cabbage. EMERGENCY: How much have you got to drink? How long will it last? Where are you going to find water? [Hint: there is a fresh water reservoir 1.5m under the island's soil surface] PROBLEM: If you get to the water, the sides of your hole keep falling in. How are you going to keep the hole clear? PROBLEM: How can you get water out whenever you need it? How can you keep the water clean? Well done, you have worked out how to get water out of the well and you've found a way to store it (I hope, because I'm thirsty and need a drink!) PROBLEM: You're getting tired of a diet of coconuts, bananas, and the occasional fish. What else can you eat? How are you going to get these food? PROBLEM: If you've decided to grow food, how will you water it without having to carry the water? PROBLEM: It's the monsoon season. Every day it rains heavily.You could catch some of this water before it soaks into the ground. What methods could you use to catch the rain water and store it? HAVE YOU BEEN ABLE TO SURVIVE? WHAT DO YOU FEEL ABOUT HAVING WATER WITHIN EASY ACCESS NOW? Write a story about your experiences on this desert island (perhaps draw a picture showing what the island looks like and all the different methods you've used for seeking, cleaning and collecting water... [on computer?] - - - - - - - - (4) WATER, POLLUTION AND COST. Water is a natural resource. Should it be free? No-one makes us pay for the air we breathe, but we do pay for the water piped into our homes. Where could you get free water if you didn't want to pay? Rivers, reservoirs, ditches, canals, puddles, rain water collected in barrels as it runs of your roof, the sea? Would you want to drink any of this water? The maintenance of our water systems (all those pipes, reservoirs and pumping systems) is done by local water authorities and paid for out of your parents' taxes and rates. So it would seem fair that we should have to pay for our clean water and for the cost of cleaning water we have made dirty, but should the ordinary householder also have to pay for the millions of tons of water polluted by industry and agriculture? Many conservationists argue that polluters should pay for pollution control, which is usually extremely costly. For example, pesticides used in farming drain into our rivers which feed our water systems. Should the cost of cleaning them out of the water be met by putting up the price of pesticides rather than on the price of water? Will this then put up the cost of our food? What could be done to help prevent other forms of water pollution such as litter and sewage? What other thoughtless things do people do to water supplies? e.g. leave taps running, dump waste into the sea etc. Make a list. What could you do to help solve these problems? - - - - - - - - (5) WATER AND OTHER DISASTERS. Briefly think about how water supplies can be affected by other natural or man made disasters. What sort of disasters? (war, drought, flashfloods) Imagine what it must be like to be in one of these disasters when you are in charge of the water supplies. What would you do? Who would you help first and why? Find out about countries where these types of problems have occurred. What happened? How did the problem/s get solved? Were they solved? If not, why not? - - - - - - - - (6) HOME-BASED PROJECT. HOW HEALTHY IS THE WATER IN YOUR LOCAL AREA? Investigate a river or a coastline nearest you: Go and look at the water, its banks or shoreline. Write down words and phrases to describe what you see. Make a list or table of other things you see either in the water or beside it. You could note both good and bad things, e.g. wildlife and litter. What do local people say about this water? Make a collection of their comments. Do people use it for leisure activities? Do you know where this river starts and ends? Or do any rivers empty into the sea nearby. Does the river pass through an area of intensive farming? If you are examining coastline are there any sewage disposal pipes along the shore? Is sewage dumping done off-shore? You should be able to obtain a report on the quality of this water from your area water authority or equivalent. Can you come to any conclusions about the quality of drinking water in your area and the health of the environment? Is there anything you can do to improve the quality of this water? Contact your local newspaper and ask if they have written stories about the water; ask them to send you copies. Write some articles for KIDPROJ and for your local newspapers. Form an activity group. Perhaps clean up a stretch of riverbank. Create a petition to send to the local water authority. GET YOUR VIEWS HEARD... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- WATER CAN BE FUN, WATER CAN BE DANGEROUS, BUT WATER IS VITAL... TWO THIRDS OF OUR BODY WEIGHT AND NINE TENTHS OF ITS VOLUME IS WATER. THAT IS WHY WATER IS ESSENTIAL FOR LIFE. PEOPLE CAN SURVIVE FOR UP TO TWO MONTHS WITHOUT FOOD, BUT DIE WITHIN THREE DAYS WITHOUT WATER. A PERSON NEEDS ABOUT 5 LITRES OF WATER EACH DAY FOR COOKING AND DRINKING. BUT THE WORLD BANK ESTIMATES THAT A FURTHER 25-45 LITRES ARE NEEDED FOR EACH PERSON TO STAY CLEAN AND HEALTHY. ABOUT 3 OUT OF EVERY 5 PEOPLE IN MANY DEVELOPING COUNTRIES STILL DO NOT HAVE EASY ACCESS TO SAFE DRINKING WATER. THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION HAS ESTIMATED THAT SICKNESS IN THE WORLD COULD IMMEDIATELY BE CUT BY 80% (!) IF SAFE WATER COULD BE SUPPLIED EVERYWHERE. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Send in your work to: KIDPROJ@vm1.nodak.edu with the subject heading: *UNICEF: 'Water and children'* Happy thinking! Bill