SDG 6 - Don’t waste a drop

Clean Water (Photo by USAID_IMAGES on Creative Commons)

Of all the existing water on the planet, only 0.0007% is drinkable and that amount is reduced year after year due to contamination.

For us Europeans, it is easy to access a glass of water to drink, or to take a shower after a day of study or work, but do you know the average amount of water a European consumes? Or how does the water get to our tap? Or where does that amount of water we use go when we flush the toilet or wash the dishes ends up?

We can search for the answers to these series of questions on the web but we would not really know if our consumption is lower or higher than the established averages.

The proposed activities are intended to answer these questions directly and by making a real analysis on the field so that the students become aware of their true use and consumption of this resource and experience the water purification process first hand.

Students are invited to go to the water purification plant to understand and see firsthand the entire water purification process that is needed to keep their cities’ rivers or beaches clean. For instance they can learn how the use of a non-natural soap or the presence of oil in the water impacts this whole process.

All the dynamics are designed in order for the students to be the protagonists of the learning process, and to promote the exchange of group ideas and stimulate collaborative intelligence, so that young people, once they are aware of the situation in their surrounding environment, become future agents of local social change.

Therefore, at the end, a challenge is proposed for the students, where they will put into practice all their skills and knowledge to sensitize their peer group, their city, or networks.

And remembering the words of Leonardo da Vinci "Water is the driving force of all nature" so it is up to us to take care of it and not waste it.

Action Areas

Learning Objectives

Cognitive learning objectives:

The learner understands water as a fundamental condition of life itself, the importance of water quality, and the causes, effects and consequences of water pollution and water scarcity.
The learner understands that water is part of many different complex global interrelationships and systems.

Socio-emotional learning objectives:

The learner is able to participate in activities of improving water and sanitation management in local communities.
The learner is able to feel responsible for their water use.

Behavioural learning objectives:

The learner is able to reduce their individual water footprint and to save water practicing their daily habits.

Competences

System thinking competency
Anticipatory competency
Strategic competency
Critical thinking competency
Self-awareness competency

Instructions

Step 1) Bills at hand (60 minutes)

We begin with the analysis of water bills to understand the average water consumption for each individual or household.

Each student must bring to class the invoice from their house, for the month that they decide to analyze and locate the following information that is requested below.

What is the total number of cubic meters that have been consumed in your family?
According to the number of cubic meters granted by the company in your family, have you gone beyond the cubic meters granted? If the answer is positive, by how many cubic meters have you exceeded?
What is the average consumption in cubic meters for each component of the family?
Calculate the average consumption of the total of the class, and compare it with consumption averages in the county, and at regional, national and world level.

For this study, it is advisable to put the data in a spreadsheet (Excel) or on the blackboard and design a graph with the most relevant data previously analyzed.

Next, the teacher will bring the water bill for the same month analyzed in the previous point but from the educational center. The same questions will be answered and an analysis will be made of the average consumption of all of the components of the center (students, teachers, workers from the same educational center).

A reflection begins on the elements that can influence the consumption of water in our home or in the educational center. (Example: how much time do we spend under the shower? How often do we use the washing machine at home? Do we use drinking water to water the flowers or do we collect rainwater?)

Step 2) Don’t waste a drop (60 minutes)

The students are divided into 3 groups and each group is assigned a color (GREEN, YELLOW AND RED). The mission of each group is individual and related to different places in the school:

G. GREEN: water collection points (tanks, wells ...)
G. YELLOW: the water consumption points (taps, toilets, showers, points for watering plants ...)
G. RED: the discharge points (septic tanks, waste water tank ...)

Once the points are located, they are marked on the plan of the educational center that the teacher will have previously delivered and all the anomalies that could affect water consumption are highlighted. For example: leaky taps, leaks, misuse …

Finally, each student writes on 3 different post-its 3 actions that each one can do either at home or in school to reduce water consumption. Once put together, all these habits could help to make a manual of good practices in the educational center.

It is also important that the student reflect on how this activity can be helpful to them in their professional future. How? By opening a reflection on how having an efficient water consumption can benefit both themselves and the whole of society.

Step 3) Purification (one morning)

A complete understanding of the complexity of the integrated water service cannot be separated from the analysis of the sewage system and the purification of waste water. After the introduction of the main phases (mechanical, chemical, biological) of the purification process, the best way to realize the polluting potential of the civil wastewater is visiting a water purifier plant. To see directly how complex it is to bring the water to acceptable conditions in order to be ready for consumption favors the adoption of responsible behaviors in the use of the resource (do not use the toilet as a trash can, collect oils separately, use ecological detergents and soaps and in limited quantities, etc.).

Alternatively, an expert worker from the water treatment plant can be invited to explain the entire process to the students.

The students are asked to take photos when possible or to take notes on the main phases of the water treatment. So that once in class you can recreate the entire course of water.

- CALL TO ACTION 1

Write a letter to the educational centre director: According to the analysis carried out in points one and two, the student can write a request to the director of the school to order some changes or improvements regarding water management. It is advisable to detail all the anomalies found and offer alternative sustainable solutions.

- CALL TO ACTION 2

Creation of a leaflet: Identify with the class, in plenary or through group work, ten virtuous behaviors to promote water saving. Have the advice so agreed by the students themselves reworked graphically, so as to obtain a leaflet to be spread around school, in the key places of the territory, on the occasion of cultural events or aggregation.

- CALL TO ACTION 3

Smart advertising: An agile dissemination tool to promote more sustainable lifestyles are the multimedia languages: designing, creating and publishing online radio or video spots has become easier thanks to the availability of relatively affordable equipment (even with mobile phones that many of the students have, it is possible to shoot, record and even upload them to Youtube without having to switch to a PC), while the spread of open source software allows you to edit audio and video files with free programs. The critical analysis of commercials and social communications easily found on Youtube provides ideas and tools to achieve effective commercials. You can also create a series of commercials that advertise different virtuous behaviors, so as to promote ideas to citizens with an appealing speech.

Requirements

Resources

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Notes for Educators

Estimated Total Duration: 2 hours in class + one morning outside + Call to Action

How to set up the group work:

Encourage responsibility: when people feel that they own what they are doing, they usually strive for success;
Create groups that take into account the characteristics, talents and learning styles: the more homogeneous a group is, the less creative and rich the work will be;
Create groups trying to overcome class dynamics and pre-existing links, uneven groups encourage the comparison and testing of democratic processes;
Do not leave the groups alone in the work, but provide monitoring moments in which to take stock together and respond to any need.

SDG 6 - Don’t waste a drop

Introduction

Resources Click each section below to see all resources available.

Resources

Click each section below to see all resources available.

Resources

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