OUR WATER, OUR LIFE
Asia/Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO (ACCU)
Our planet of water
We are all living on this planet, Earth. Do you see the blue part? That’s all water. See, almost 3/4 of our planet is covered by water. That is why Earth is often called “the planet of water.”
But 98% of water is sea water and it’s too salty for us to use. Moreover, since most of this remaining 2% freshwater is ice, less than 0.3% of water on Earth is directly available to us. But our precious water is getting dirty. Now, let’s see how much our life depends on water and how we can keep our water clean and safe.
Water – part of us Human beings, animals and plants, all living creatures on Earth need water to live and grow. We all take water. Do you know that around 65% of our body is made out of water?
How much water is in our body?
Human
Buffalo
Fish
Chicken
Banana
Water – Essential to our daily life Water is essential to our daily life in many ways. This is our village. Let’s see what we are doing….
Jai is farming.
Leela is watering the vegetable garden.
Lin is drawing water.
Jai’s father is drinking boiled water.
Lita is fetching water.
Tin is fishing.
Ana and Pon are swimming. Buffalo are bathing.
The Essay on Earth and Planet
God create our planet earth for us to have a home so we have to take care of our planet because God gave it to us and if we don’t take care of our planet someday our planet earth will be destroy or it will be gone. We have to protect our nature specially the trees because if we don’t protect our nature and if we cut down all the trees we will experience stronger floods and typhoon that will ...
Mina is washing clothes.
Water is used in many ways such as for agriculture and household use. How many ways do you see? Can you think of any other ways?
Min is bathing.
What’s making water dirty?
We saw how much we depend on water in our daily life. On the other hand, we unconsciously cause a lot of damage to the water every day. The amount of pollutants each person puts in the water may be small. Yet if everyone does the same, every day, soon there will be no clean safe water left.
Here are some examples of water pollution. Let’s see how our precious water becomes dirtier every day.
Using chemical detergent and not having proper waste water management
Throwing garbage into the river
Human and animal wastes near the well
Spraying chemical pesticides
Besides all this, factories put a lot of pollutants into the river and oceans.
Polluted water causes trouble.
As a result of water pollution, we face many problems. Let’s see what kind of problems there might be…
When we drink polluted water, and/or eat fish from polluted rivers, we may…
vomit
have fever
have diarrhea
River water will be spoiled and fish will die.
Fish and other creatures will be deformed because of chemicals.
Dirty water could cause many problems for every living creature. We have to prevent water pollution and keep our water clean and safe.
What to do to keep our water clean and safe
Putting garbage into a bin and separating it into organic and other garbage. Cleaning the river and its surroundings
Keep our village clean Put the garbage here.
Keeping garbage dump and toilet away from the water source
making a proper sewage system and reducing the use of chemical detergent by switching to organic soap.
organic soap: soap made by natural ingredients
Making ash from organic waste to make compost
The Essay on California Water Pollution Act Clean Laws
California Water Pollution Water pollution is the major problem in our world today. The state of California also has many water problems of it's own. Many living things suffer from polluted water. Humans, animals, and other organisms depend on water to live. So what will happen if nothing is done to save our polluted water Or if what is being done just isn't enough to keep our water clean and ...
A little effort in our daily life can keep our water safe and clean. Let’s start by…
Practicing organic farming and using fewer agricultural chemicals
planting trees on the river bank to prevent soil from being washed away
Water Cycle
The river in our village flows into the sea, and the water in the sea evaporates and forms clouds. The water then becomes rain and comes back to us as river and ground water.
Forming clouds
Evaporation
Water cycles on our planet…
How we take care of water in one village will affect the next village, town and ocean. Everything is connected…
Rain, Snow
evaporation from leaves
forest holds water
sinking into the ground
ground water
IT’S OUR ONLY PLANET!
Water goes around the world, across borders, through generations.
Now you know that water is essential for everyone. We are sharing this precious water with all life on Earth. So we have to share the responsibility of keeping the water clean.
A little bit of environmentally friendly behavior can make a difference! We must all keep Earth safe and clean for everyone in the world and for our future generations.
Things to Remember to Keep Our Water Clean and Safe
1. Do NOT throw garbage in the river. 2. Keep garbage dump and toilet away from the water source. 3. Separate organic garbage from other garbage. 4. Compost human, animal, and vegetable waste. 5. Avoid using chemical pesticide and fertilizers as much as possible and practice composting. 6. Reduce the amount of soap and detergents when washing dishes and clothes and switch to organic soap. 7. Plant trees on the mountain and by the river bank.
Guide for Utilization Target: (1) Neo-literate adults in Non-Formal Education (2) Formal education school and out-of-school children (grade 4 to 8) Objective: (1) To raise awareness of importance of water environment. (2) To introduce water pollution and its possible effects. (3) To reduce water pollution by suggesting methods of preventing pollution. (4) To raise awareness of importance of environment and that people are part of nature. Application: 1. Before distributing the booklet, discuss informally how water is used in daily life, what learners know about water, where and how they get water. 2. Go around the neighborhood and try to identify many forms of water (rain, dew, fog, ice, liquid, vapor, etc.), then try to find the sources of water. 3. Distribute this booklet to learners and ask them to read through it. 4. Start the discussion about water environment in their village and see whether their water is polluted. 5. Discuss cause and effect of water pollution. 6. The instructor may take learners to a nearby river or other kinds of water source to observe what are in the river and discuss possible effects on the water quality. 7. Then, discuss possible actions learners can take to prevent such pollution. 8. If the river is dirty, the learners should start cleaning. Illustrated by Shinichi Suzuki (Japan)Supervised by Norio Ogura(Japan) C •@Asia/Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO (ACCU) 1998 6 Fukuromachi, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-8484 Japan e-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.accu.or.jp/litdbase Planned and produced under the Asian/Pacific Joint Production Programme of Materials for Neo-Literates in Rural Areas (AJP) in co-operation with UNESCO Bangkok
The Essay on River pollution
The water in most of our rivers is highly polluted. The pollution of river water is caused by the dumping of untreated sewage and industrial wastes into it. For example, the river Ganga which flows for over 2500 kilometres from Gangotri in the Himalayas to Ganga Sagar in the Bay of Bengal is being turned into a dirty water drain by the discharge of untreated sewage and industrial wastes emanating ...
