WHAT IF: We had less water?

 

Summary: In this activity students consider the typical requirements on a water supply, and use the What-If Builder to develop options.

Introduction: Huge numbers of people on Earth have no access to reliably clean drinking water. Many emergencies (e.g. earthquakes, droughts, floods, wars) endanger water supplies. During severe droughts in western India, for example, the government was forced to bring drinking water to rural areas by railway. During droughts in Africa, relief agencies have had to send in tankers of water to starving refugees.

As population rises, more and more people will face acute shortages in fresh water. Rivers, often making a boundary between countries, are frequently shared between two or more countries, and are more likely to become places of dispute. When populations rise, and people become more desperate for water, they are likely to become less inclined to share with their neighbors downstream. Each one of us should have a beginning understanding of this situation.

Materials:

Download the latest version of the What-If Builder. This software has its own HELP pages.

Classroom Management: In this activity, you can have teams build independent stories and merge them together. Classes can address one, two or more of the themes below. The II themes are more complex, involving two countries. Working with small teams may facilitate the work.

If the What-If Builder was not used with the class in Unit I, the teacher might work through the process of writing a sample story (several are included in the software) up on a projector with the whole class watching and making suggestions.

Activity Steps:

Step 1: Assign a thread to each team:

I. What if your water use has to be reduced? What uses will you have to reduce?

What if, because of climate change, your water supply dried up to a quarter of your present level?

What if the number doubled of people wanting water in your own neighborhood?

What if a team of water scientists found out that part of your water supply was polluted?

 

II. How can your water be shared? What uses will you have to reduce? How do you feel about this? Discuss the understanding that although the water LOOKS as though it is in your land, in reality it moves all the time and is shared and even is needed by your neighbor.

What if the upstream country next door had a population doubling, and your population stayed the same, and your neighbor needed more of your shared water. [Remember; water flows downhill!]

What if you had a population doubling and the downstream country kept its population the same. What would happen to the water distribution?

Make up another story

Step 2. Consider your choices, and the outcomes of your choices. Write them on the tree diagram.

Step 3. Export your stories AS FILES and join them together by importing them into the What-If Builder. Print out the completed version for students to read. Students can color pictures that can be entered into the What If Builder. You might also vote on the five best pictures in class and attach those in the room for Water Scarcity Drawings in the COMMON's.

Step 4. Attach your combined stories to the document room "What-If Water Stories" in ...

Step 5. Check for and download any stories by other classes several weeks later. Discuss any significant differences in the stories.

 

Extensions:

You could also use the What-If Builder to address the question: What if we had TOO MUCH water? Consider challenges faced by countries such as Bangladesh and the Netherlands. Consider, in addition, the fate of small islands facing global warming, with the prospect of sea rise .

Further References:

Donella Meadows column: Whom do we blame when world dries up?
shttp://iisd1.iisd.ca/pcdf/meadows/drought.html

Sustaining Water: Population and the Future of Sustainable Water Supplies

Projections for China and India http://www.cnie.org/pop/pai/image7.html

See the case of Libya.; the story of the Colorado