How Families Get Water in Africa

                                                   

Description: A young girl getting water from a local river in Africa.
Link: http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/vol21no3/213-water.html
















Summary:
Like many young girls, this girl has to trek 2 kilometers(1.25 miles) to get water for cooking, drinking, bathing, and for livestock. This family is lucky then access to the clean water of the river, unlike some Africans who do not have access to any clean water. More that half of the families that live in the rural parts of Africa do not have access to clean water for bathing, drinking, cooking, or livestock. And for those families who do not get the clean water they often have to have very unhealthy water. These waters have many chemicals in them that are bad for the body. UNICEF helps villages in Africa to build wells or other ways to get water for these families. Africa has an abundant amount of fresh water; there are lakes big rivers, vast wetlands, and widespread ground waters. But at the moment only about 4 percent is being used.

Opinion:
I think that it is a good thing that UNICEF is taking action to help the people of Africa. It is sad that many people have to trek very far just to get water. Or that some families do not even have access to clean water. In class we learned that there can be a lot of chemicals in water. Also there can be a lot of deadly chemical in the water if they are not filtered out. They wouldn't die right after drinking them it would get them sick over a long period of drinking that water.

Questions:
Is there a program to help get water from those fresh water areas?
What is stopping people from using the other 96% of the fresh water in Africa?
What precautions have been made to help Africans get cleaner water?

The Issue: Water Pollution

Written by Johnathon Watts

Tuesday 28 June 2011

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jun/28/china-food-water

Summary: In China the water table levels are dropping dramatically. China is very populated and and they grow a lot of wheat. They grow the wheat on top of the water tables and it is using up a lot of the water from the tables. The level is dropping 1 meter every year. They are being told that they have to be more conservative. Before the government starts to reduce the growing, they are trying to make a more efficient way to use the water and manage it more. They have also made it more expensive to dig down and use the water and put a limit on the amount your aloud to use it. They are trying very hard to slow down the use of the water tables.

Opinion/Reflection: I think that this is a very bad thing, and what they are doing should be done every where else around the world. If other places don't start to conserve the water in the water tables, they will start to deplete too. I know that I take water for granted because we have such easy access to it, but i need to change that. Everyone needs start conserving water so we don't run too low also.

Questions:

1) If it all disappears, how long will it take for all of the water in the table there to be totally gone there?

2) Because of the agriculture they do on the water tables which use fertilizers, is the water table getting polluted?

3) Should everyone start to conserve the water in the water tables before we start to run low?

Water use rising faster than world population

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/25/us-population-water-idUSTRE79O3WO20111025

Picture: This picture shows that humans are polluting the water, even when we're using too much of it.

Summary: As the human population reaches nearly 7 billion people, it has been concluded that we are using too much water. It is projected that our water use will only continue, likely by 50% by the year 2025. When there is a drought or any other factor that can affect the usage of water, it will be noticed even more. Only 2.5% of the water on Earth is fresh water and nearly two-thirds of that is frozen. Because of that, about one billion people don't have access to fresh water. There are some rivers that are in danger of being unusable including the Colorado River basin and the Yellow River basin in China. Using too much water is also effecting companies. Some companies including The Gap and Kraft Foods had to cut pay to workers or raise their prices to account for the high price of water.

Opinion: It's pretty nutty that the world is using too much of something that we use everyday. It seems like water should just be a thing that will always be there. I think that it would be a good idea to monitor the usage of water or limit how much a person can use. It's not cool that some people die because they don't have access to water.

Questions:
1. Is it possible to ever completely run out of water?
2. What are some every day ways that you can reduce your water usage?
 3. How much water should a person use a day for every day needs?