- List the main reasons for water scarcity.
Very low rain fall, population growth, agriculture, pollution and global warming which causes many climate changes - a)What is a drought? A prolonged period of time when there is less than average rainfall. b)What type of hardships do you think that a drought could cause if were living in a village in a poor country such as Ethiopia? People would have no water supply, it would be very hot, crops would die and people and life stock will also die. There will will be a famine and land will dry up.
- How does land degradation affect the supply of fresh water? It stops fresh water water going into the soil, and instead all the rain water will directly flow into riv
ers and lakes. Also the rain water will take away the top soil and you will have erosion - a) What is El Nino ? The warming up of the SouthernEastern Tropical Pacific Ocean. b)Why does El Nino often cause drought in Australia? The clouds and rain storms that come come with warm oceans also shift towards the east. As a result rains which would normally fall over Australia start falling over the dessert in Peru. This causes forest fires and drought in the Western Pacific and flooding in South America.
- Observe the map showing the global effects of El Nino in 1982-83. a)What effects does El Nino have on the availability of fresh water? The regions where there is a drought the fresh water supply will run on reserves and might run out. But in the regions where there is more rain than average the aquifer will fill up, but floods will probably also happen and cause salt water intrusion. b) Name the countries and describe the problems that arose from decreased rainfall caused by El Nino ? Indonesia : many forest fires and clearance of tropical forest causing very high air pollution levels. Singapore & Malaysia : air polution due to burning of tropical forest. Philippines : lower rice harvest following drought. China : agricultural land under threat from drought in Northern regions and flooding in Southern regions. Papua New
Guinea : Drought related failure of food crops, leading to famine conditions requiring food aid. Africa : reduced corn crop in Sub-Saharan region. Australia : wheat exports threatened by drought across grain growing areas and mostly in New`South Wales
Tuesday 24 November 2009
Water Questions 2
Thursday 19 November 2009
Wednesday 18 November 2009
Water Treatment Plant
On Thursday the 12th of November half of grade six went to a water treatment plant. The reason is because grade six is learning about water and how people go through the process on how to clean so it becomes clean enough to drink and do everything else with. The water treatment plant we went to is somewhere near to Anchol. While all the math and science teachers went to the water treatment plant the other half of sixth grade went to Bintaro Lama.
Step 1, Garbage Removal: At this stage they let the water from the river come in. First they let the water through a big filter to take out all the bulk in the water and send it to a place where the recycle the garbage to make other things such as bricks. After all the bulk is gone they send it to a smaller filter to take out most of the smaller pieces of the pollution in the water. At the plant they have to clean the filters every hour because the river is polluted really badly.
Step 2, Alum Added: At this stage they bring the water all the way to the back of the plant to put in a chemical that causes all the tiny dirt particles to come together and from floc. This chemical is added and then they stir the water causing all the dirt to come to the top and sick together. This takes long before the water is moved to the stage of cleaning water.
Step 3, Allow The Sediment To Settle: At this stage the alum has been added and now the floc is settling to the bottom so they can scoop up all the dirt from the bottom instead of skimming it from the top, this is called sedimentation. Once they have scooped the sediment from the bottom the water is sent to the very back of the plate. This stage might take a long time before they can move the water on to the next stage.
Step 4, Filtering The Water Through A Sand Filter: After the water has been cleaned some really tiny dirt particles still are in the water and this can cause very bad diseases. In this stage water is filtered through 1metre of sand and then sent to another tank. The sand that they use is very unique because all the sand grains are the same size because otherwise the rest of the tiny dirt particles can go through smaller grains of sand.
Step 5, Disinfecting To Make Potable: At this stage chemicals are added to the water to make the water clean and potable. They add many chemicals to make the water cleaner and able to send it to reservoir and the water is very clean after it has been through the whole process on making extreme dirty water to clean water.
We were done and now heading back to JIS, when Yash and I realized that the river where the water treatment plate used is the same river that is in front of our apartment building. I found it amazing and wanted to know other ways on how to clean water in other countries and how they use it.
Step 1, Garbage Removal: At this stage they let the water from the river come in. First they let the water through a big filter to take out all the bulk in the water and send it to a place where the recycle the garbage to make other things such as bricks. After all the bulk is gone they send it to a smaller filter to take out most of the smaller pieces of the pollution in the water. At the plant they have to clean the filters every hour because the river is polluted really badly.
Step 2, Alum Added: At this stage they bring the water all the way to the back of the plant to put in a chemical that causes all the tiny dirt particles to come together and from floc. This chemical is added and then they stir the water causing all the dirt to come to the top and sick together. This takes long before the water is moved to the stage of cleaning water.
Step 3, Allow The Sediment To Settle: At this stage the alum has been added and now the floc is settling to the bottom so they can scoop up all the dirt from the bottom instead of skimming it from the top, this is called sedimentation. Once they have scooped the sediment from the bottom the water is sent to the very back of the plate. This stage might take a long time before they can move the water on to the next stage.
Step 4, Filtering The Water Through A Sand Filter: After the water has been cleaned some really tiny dirt particles still are in the water and this can cause very bad diseases. In this stage water is filtered through 1metre of sand and then sent to another tank. The sand that they use is very unique because all the sand grains are the same size because otherwise the rest of the tiny dirt particles can go through smaller grains of sand.
Step 5, Disinfecting To Make Potable: At this stage chemicals are added to the water to make the water clean and potable. They add many chemicals to make the water cleaner and able to send it to reservoir and the water is very clean after it has been through the whole process on making extreme dirty water to clean water.
We were done and now heading back to JIS, when Yash and I realized that the river where the water treatment plate used is the same river that is in front of our apartment building. I found it amazing and wanted to know other ways on how to clean water in other countries and how they use it.
Monday 16 November 2009
Bintaro Lama
On Thursday the 5th of November part of grade six went to Bintaro Lama. The reason we went there was because grade six is learning about water and how people in parts of the world get it and clean. In Bintaro Lama WatSan has a project there helping the people of the kampung clean their water so it is safe to drink and use. I went to stations 2, 4 and 6. In these stations we learnt ways on how they clean water and how they use it.
Station 2: PHP hand washing for kids and adults.
This station is about people wash their hands. They have to wash there hands after they have pooed because once they have pooed, they have no toilet paper to clean butt, instead they have to use their hands. Once they are done they go to have food they touch it and it gets contaminated with the nasty germs of their poo. Here they also teach people on how to be hygienic, by putting soil on top of the poo so no flies can get to it. WatSan also taught them many other ways to keep themselves safe for harmful bacteria.
Station 4: Ceramic and PUR filtering.
At this station we learnt one on how they clean their water so it is potable. The ceramic filter is a big filter with a ceramic piece on top where they poured the water in. Once they poured the water in, they had to wait 8-10 hours on till the water was clean enough to drink and cook with. If they wanted water to have in the morning they would put the water in the ceramic filter at night and in the morning they would be able to use it. With PUR they put in the powder and wait of a while, soon when all the dirt has settled on the bottom they put it through a filter several times until it is clean.
Station 6: Air Rahmat and aquataps.
Air rahmat is a product that you have to put in special amounts of it for the amounts of water. You pout in the Air rahmat and shake it for 30sec and then put it in the sun to wait 30minutes until the water is potable or usable. The Aquataps are many used for emergency because it is a very fast method of clean water. WatSan put the Aqautaps in and wait about 5-10 minutes until the water is clean to use.
I really enjoyed myself and found it very amazing on how many ways people in Bintaro Lama have to get clean water, but the down turn is it takes a lot of effort and time for them to get the clean water they need.
Wednesday 11 November 2009
Questions On Fresh Water
1. What percentage of the world's supply of water is fresh water?
2.5% of the world’s water is fresh.
2. Where is the world's supply of fresh water found?
Most of the fresh water is found in ice, but humans get it from the ground water.
3. Even though the supply of fresh water is abundant it is still a problem. Why?
The water is not evenly spread out across the world and humans do not handle it properly. Also if people us it properly not everyone can get to it.
4. Observe the map of the world average annual precipitation (opposite). a) Describe the changes in rainfall that occurs as you move from the Northern to the Southern tip of Africa.
At the Southern tip is a bit dry but when you get to the middle it rains more often, just past the middle the northern tip is just like the southern tip drier and does not rain that often. b) Describe the changes in rainfall that occurs as you move from the Western to the Eastern tip of Australia along the Tropic of Capricorn.
At the Western tip it is bone dry with hardly any rainfall but as you move closer and closer to the Eastern tip it just gets wetter and wetter.
5. Observe the map above of water availability per person. a) Which parts of the world appear to have large amount of water available per person?
Countries that are not overpopulated, they also have enough money to sustain their country and population. b) Which parts of the world appear to have a small amount of water per person?
Countries that are overpopulated and don not have enough money to give their whole population the fresh water that they need.
6. Observe the diagram of water use. a) What are the main uses of water?
Agricultural and industrial use the most water. b) Which uses have increased the most over the last century?
Agricultural has increased the most over the last century.
2.5% of the world’s water is fresh.
2. Where is the world's supply of fresh water found?
Most of the fresh water is found in ice, but humans get it from the ground water.
3. Even though the supply of fresh water is abundant it is still a problem. Why?
The water is not evenly spread out across the world and humans do not handle it properly. Also if people us it properly not everyone can get to it.
4. Observe the map of the world average annual precipitation (opposite). a) Describe the changes in rainfall that occurs as you move from the Northern to the Southern tip of Africa.
At the Southern tip is a bit dry but when you get to the middle it rains more often, just past the middle the northern tip is just like the southern tip drier and does not rain that often. b) Describe the changes in rainfall that occurs as you move from the Western to the Eastern tip of Australia along the Tropic of Capricorn.
At the Western tip it is bone dry with hardly any rainfall but as you move closer and closer to the Eastern tip it just gets wetter and wetter.
5. Observe the map above of water availability per person. a) Which parts of the world appear to have large amount of water available per person?
Countries that are not overpopulated, they also have enough money to sustain their country and population. b) Which parts of the world appear to have a small amount of water per person?
Countries that are overpopulated and don not have enough money to give their whole population the fresh water that they need.
6. Observe the diagram of water use. a) What are the main uses of water?
Agricultural and industrial use the most water. b) Which uses have increased the most over the last century?
Agricultural has increased the most over the last century.
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