Freshwater and U Presentation at School

Well, last night we had our big presentation at school to tell everyone about Freshwater, and what it means to everyone especially those that have none or very little.
My display was set up in the classroom and I had a large calico background, covered with lots of information. I also had a desk for display information and I was able to hand out lots of my brochures and fridge magnets as well as OneDrop's great postcards that had information about water and their organisation as well as a reduced water recipe.

My posters and information included lots of information from www.seqwater.com.au , www.onedrop.org , as well as famous quotes and other information that I have gathered along the way. I have really enjoyed it.

I have included some images below -

 

Here I am with my calico backdrop and desk.

I had a sign that invited people to ask me all about how I saved 37% of our water consumption at home

 

 

 

 

 

Here is another view of my presentation.

 

 

Below are copies of the Fridge Magnet I made and the wonderful brochures that I handed out.

 

It was a great night and I am sure that lots of people will now be following my example and saving water at home.

 

A couple of other things before I take a break from blogging and have a holiday include -

 

My dad and I put a rain gauge up on the 21st of July 2012, and last night after the presentation on Freshwater we received our first 1 mm of rain in it. So no rain for 8 weeks and then it rains just after I tell everyone about how important freshwater is.

 

Secondly I have been having visitors to my blog from all around the world, the latest countries that have found their way here include United States, Russia and Spain. This is great and Spain in particular as I am learning Spanish at school.

 

So thanks for reading my blog again and I will back in action after the school holidays.

Cheers

 

Adios. Hasta pronto.

 

 

 





'Saving the World One Drop at a Time'

Good Afternoon to all of my Followers and Visitors

Today it is still very dry, but I wanted to update everyone on how my school project is going. As you are aware my project is about 'Freshwater and U', and over the last few weeks I have learnt a lot about the issues facing the increasing population and the shortge's we face with clean Freshwater.

As I put my reports and display together ready for next Tuesday's presentation I remember some of the important things I discovered along the way.

1. More than 2 billion people do not have access to reliable clean Freshwater and as a result more than 3 million people die each year because of it.

2. Organisations such as One Drop are out there helping people. I found OneDrp.org when I went to Cirque du Soleil. One Drop was started by the founder of Cirque du Soleil in Canada.
They have also been very supportive of the work I have been doing and have provided some great posters and handouts for my presentation.

Thank you OneDrop.org.   Please visit their website and support them.

3. I have also been lucky to have had support from SEQ Water and I have learnt a lot about how our Freshwater is cleaned and delivered to our home. We are so blessed to have access to clean Freshwater and we need to make sure we use it wisely.

I managed to check out the Capalaba Water Teatment Plant from the outside only.

 

 

seqwater.com.au is a great website to find out alot of things about Freashwater including

• The Water Cycle
• How they make clean Freshwater
• How a Desalination Plant works
• What the SE Queensland Water Grid is
• How to save water
• What we can do

4. Because I now know how important Freshwater is we did surveys at home, made some changes and we managed to reduce our total water usage by 37%.

The changes we made are permanent so we will continue to save water and money.

 

 

 

5. My Dad was so excited about the savings that we are now starting to change the way we use electricity as well.

 

I will keep on Blogging and I can't wait to show you photos of my school presentation.

 

But that's about it for now as I have to go and do some homework, though I would rather be 'Saving the World, One Drop at a Time'.

 

Bye

Matthew

 

Well it has been pretty dry at my place.
We installed a rain gauge on July 21 2012, but to date we have received no rain.
So I thought I would share some tips on water saving in the garden.

1. Mulch your plants
This stops water evaporating from around the plants and also keeps their roots cool. Here you can see our lemon tree and the mulch That we made at home around its base.

2. Use greywater from your washing machine to water the garden.
We hope to set this up soon.

3. Use water from you tank to water your garden as this is good rain water that does not have to be treated and is free from the sky.

 

4. The other thing I need to mention is that I did a personal water usage survey and I found that I use 131 litres per day. This is less than the Brisbane average.

5. I am also working on my Freshwater project for school. We have a big exhibition on Tuesday 18th September. I am completing my Journal and preparing my Display.
Its going to be great.


Stay cool and don't use too much water.
Matthew

Spring is Sprung

Hi There Followers
As you know Spring has sprung here in the Southern Hemisphere and it is a good time to start a new with our freshwater habits.

1. Well we completed our household survey after making a couple of simple changes to our routines.
My Dad

• Replaced the shower head in my shower because we used the most water.
• Fixed the leaky tap in the bathroom.
• And as a family we spoke about conserving water and shortening our shower lengths.

I am pleased to report that we reduced our consumption be 37%. Our consumption dropped from 767 to 482 litres per day.
This is a really good achievement and we will continue to make a change at home.


2. Ever since we put our rain gauge in on the 21st of July we have received no rain. The grass is looking brown, and luckily we have a lot of drought resistant plants (they require not much water to survive). Some rain would be nice though to top up our rainwater tank.

3. Here is a poster for the United Nations 2103 International Year of Water Cooperation.
The website where you can also find out more information is included as well.

http://www.unwater.org/watercooperation2013/


4. Finally some facts about water. As you can see there are lots of people dieing every year because of a lack of fresh water. It is up to us to use it wisely, so that everyone can enjoy this basic right.




http://water.org/water-crisis/water-facts/water/


So thanks again, and keep conserving water in every way you can..
Bye for now,

Matthew

One Drop

Hi There Freshwater Friends
Again I have a number of things to share with you for this week.


1. I found a great link on Youtube to video about fresh water.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=if5ww5xgEUQ&feature=player_embedded&noredirect=1

I found OneDrop.org when we went to Circue du Soleil. Circue du Soleil are donating money from every ticket sold to OneDrop.org. I think this is really good of them

2. We are redoing the survey on our water usage at our house. We made a few changes to the way we run taps etc. The biggest changes we made were, reducing shower time, changing the shower head to a more efficient (less water) design and fixing a leaky tap.
I am looking forward to the positive changes that they will bring to our home water usage. I will let you know the results next week.

3. On the National Geographic Web Site there is lots of information about people and communities that lack water and lack clean water. They also have some quizzes to test how much we know about water. My dad and I did one..................

http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/freshwater/freshwater-quizzes/

I got 4/10.
Dad got 5/10.




Slow steady drip = 280 litres per week
Fast Drip = 750 litres per week
Steady Stream = 3800 litres per week.

OneDrop.org

Fresh Water Usage at Home

I have lots of great information to share this week, so lets begin with what has been happening at home.

1. The results are in for our home freshwater survey and over the week we averaged 767 litres per day or 192 litres per person per day. This is a fair bit more than the 143 litres per person that was used by the Central South East Queensland. We will need to do something about our usage.

You can keep up to date with how much water we use in the South East Queensland Area by visiting the website below.
http://www.qwc.qld.gov.au/releases/2012-08-03-daily-water-use.html

2. Now the worst users of water were my sister and I who used 58% of all the water used, during our daily 13 minute showers.

I will ask dad to replace the shower head and install a timer so that we can reduce our consumption when we redo the survey next week.
Otherwise we must be really dirty to have used so much water.

The next highest use of water was from Mum and Dad's shower where 16% of the water was used.

Late news: Dad has replaced the shower head and where before it was 2.8 lites per 10 seconds, it is now 1.4 litres per 10 seconds. So we have halved the water flow.



3. I have put togther a sheet on how to read the water meter at home. I couldn't read a meter at first but dad showed me how to read it and I thought everyone should know how to do this so I have attached it to this blob. It will eventually be part of my Householder Pack on Managing Freshwater Usage in the Home.

You can copy and download this document if you like.

4. I also found out about how they 'make' the water we use in our homes. It goes like this -
- The water begins in a lake or dam where it is stored.
- It is pumped to a water treatment plant.
- Chemicals are added to make all of the dirt stick together and then they are filtered out.
- The water is disinfected to remove bacteria and other microorganisms.
- It is then stored in big water tanks before being pumped into our homes.

So thanks for reading my blog and I will send out another one real soon.
Bye.

What I Am Doing This Week :-)

At my school I am doing a project on Peace and Conflict where I am looking at Freshwater and U.
This week we have been measuring how much fresh water we use at home. Everyone has to fill in a chart whenever they use freshwater.
I am also reading the rain gauge (no rain yet) and the water meter at the front of the house.
At the end of this week I will know how much water we use at home and hopefully we can find ways to reduce our use.
Water is important to everyone on Earth and I have discovered that Australia is the second highest user of freshwater per person in the word. We use on average 500 litres per person while Ethiopians use about 20 litres per person.

I found some interesting quotes as well

"When the well is dry, we know the worth of water."       Benjamin Franklin 1746

"Filthy water cannot be washed." West African Proverb

"Anyone who can solve the problems of water will be worthy of two Nobel prizes - one for peace and one for science."      John F. Kennedy

Thank you for reading my Blog................................