Recap of Workshop Two: Water Scarcity
- Mar 9, 2017
- 2 min read
Our second workshop on water scarcity was a full house again with 37 participants! We're going to need a bigger classroom soon. Most of the students attended the climate change workshop last week, however there were a few new faces!
We started the workshop with a short pre-test and a quick brainstorming session to get them thinking about water. Students worked together in groups of 4-5 to discuss how water is used in their daily life. They were asked to write down their ideas on a sheet of paper and share it with the entire group. Most groups mentioned the use of water for basic hygiene, sanitation and drinking.
Next, we talked about the meaning of sustainability and water scarcity. We touched upon the hydrologic cycle, water usage in their respective countries using an interactive map, factors of water scarcity and consequences. They were particularly taken aback when I presented alarming statistics concerning water. Before the workshop, most students thought that everyone had access to clean and safe drinking water. However, they learned that over 1.1 billion people globally do not have access to basic needs. They were especially surprised when I told them over 2 million people, especially children, die yearly from diarrheal diseases due to unsafe drinking water.
We then continued with the virtual reality portion of the workshop and they watched a 360 video made by Charity:Water, which depicts a young Ethiopian girl on her journey to retrieve water. The students learned this responsibility is largely left for the women and girls to walk miles on end. They also watched another video from the New York Times, which shows how one village in Peru collects their water, by catching fog. This taught them that there are creative and emerging solutions to solve issues of water scarcity.
Knowing how precious our water resources are, they will certainly think twice about eating a burger when I told them it takes approximately 1, 840 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of beef!
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