I thought about how important the use of clean water. It serves many purposes and we could not survive without it. The first thing that comes to mind when think of clean water is it is used for drinking, cooking and washing. As a teacher I continue to encourage my children to consume more water instead of soft drinks and juices. In one part of
Africa the use of clean healthy water is a problem that has been on the rise for many years. People use buckets to gather water from a watering hole. If and when that hole runs dry another has to dig in a new area. This same watering hole may be used by local business, families or medicals facilities. In
Blantyre the population has grown from
113,000 in 1966 to
670,000 in 2008, according to the National Statistical Office. Because there is not suffient clean water, dirty linen from the hospitals are left soiled and bloodied. The workers continue to complain because there is not way to wash the linens or the patients.
In an article from the 2003 CNN (Water shortages may make
Africa more aid dependent) experts say that by 2025 as many as 523 million people in
Africa may be without access to clean water. This means that farmers will not have enough water for their crops. Since many parts of
Africa are in droughts that lack of water any were will affect every part.
A couple of years ago I started to really monitor how often my own children drank water. Their drinks consisted of sodas, juices and just like mind lots of sweet tea. In a week my family consumed about 10 to
15 pounds of sugary drinks. So with that being said I stopped buying sodas, I did not make kool-aid. The sweet teas I still struggle with. (I just do not make it at home for the kids). I switched to crystal lights and I put a water cooler in the kitchen. My children are more aware of the importance of clean water for their bodies and I can tell they are making better choices on their own with their drinks when away from home.
Sources:
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/africa/11/01/water.shortage.reut/%20retrieved
September 18, 2018 from Water shortages may make
Africa more aid dependent
Hospitals Struggle Amid Water Shortage by Charles Mpak/
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=56886 / retrieved
September 18, 2011
2 comments:
I too am amazed at how many children now in my center will tell me that they do not like water because they are so used to receiving the sugary drinks at home. Our public school system has also started a water bottle program so children have access to water throughout the day to keep them hydrated as studies are showing that you can learn better by drinking water.
When I taught Kindergarten my children used to do an experiment with water in which they learned about the importance of clean water and conservation. Parents
were asked to help them monitor their water intake at home and all the different uses, even at 5 the children were very surprised at how much water they used each day. The lesson makes them more aware of conserving the water and we discuss what would happen if we didn't have access to the water. They can be pretty creative but I think that they actually learn from the lesson and they practice conservation at home.
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