Just to be Clear
Hello there! We just wrapped up our first unit, 71%, for our class H20 and this is our first official action project to present to you what we have learned and why we have learned it! In H20 we learned why there are so many water crises, how to conserve water, how to solve conversions and other mathematical terms, and how people transport their daily water. We are learning this so we know what is going on in the world, why this is happening, how we can help, and through this Action Project teach others about water usage and how it is affecting others!
One of the first things we did in this class was calculate an estimate of how much water we use every day. I ended up with less than the average American with 73.49 gallons per day (the average is 150 gallons!). And though I take shorter showers since I have shorter hair, hygiene was still the largest consumer of my daily water. The least water consuming category was ironically consuming water. In this Action Project we had to compare our daily water usage to the average American’s daily water usage, and the daily water usage from another country. I chose Ghana which is a nation on West Africa’s Gulf of Guinea as my other country. The average daily water usage is baffling as it is only about 9.25 gallons per person every day!
Another lesson we had to learn in H20 was how much people without easy access to water suffer to get the few gallons they can. To learn this lesson we simulated what getting our daily water would be like, as our first FE (field experience) was based on this idea. We went to the North Branch Canal which is part of the Chicago River to carry water from there to our school. The distance we carried the water was .35 miles. I paired up with a friend to carry a cooler full of water plus two gallons of extra water. We thought we were carrying 7-8 gallons each and we thought it would take us about 22 minutes. When we got to the school to measure how much water we had, it was actually around 4.625 for each of us (oops spillage!) and took us 12.22 minutes (the 4.625 gallons I carried was exactly 50% of what the average person in Ghana uses!). Though it didn’t take us as long as we thought it would it was hard on our bodies! The next day I could not feel my arms, and I sat down in the morning thinking how can someone do this every day with so much more water and with so many other obstacles? How could children do this? I mean 4.625 gallons is about 38.57 pounds and 6.29% of my daily water usage which comes to a total of 73.49 gallons. I would have to do that water trip around 16 times which would take me 6.25 HOURS.
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| GGS (2017) Just to be Clear |
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| Average American Consumption per Day |
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| GGS Average Consumption per Day |
As you can see on the poster the average Ghana citizen uses 9.25 gallons (14.8 liters, 77.145 pounds) of water per day. The average American citizen uses 150 gallons (240 liters, 1,251 pounds) of water per day. And I use 73.49 gallons (117.58 liters, 612.90 pounds) of water per day.
This whole unit, including the Action Project, has changed my perspective on water so much. I'm quite proud of how this AP came out, even though coordinating everything to fit together was challenging. I had a lot of fun making this and have been very enlightened by it. I have had the privilege of not knowing how much people suffer because they don't have access to clean water, and the privilege to waste so much water. I had no idea how much water I was sending down the drain, and how much others would really want even half of the water I use. After this unit, I will try anything in my power to lessen my water usage, and you should too.
This whole unit, including the Action Project, has changed my perspective on water so much. I'm quite proud of how this AP came out, even though coordinating everything to fit together was challenging. I had a lot of fun making this and have been very enlightened by it. I have had the privilege of not knowing how much people suffer because they don't have access to clean water, and the privilege to waste so much water. I had no idea how much water I was sending down the drain, and how much others would really want even half of the water I use. After this unit, I will try anything in my power to lessen my water usage, and you should too.
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Since only .37% of the world’s water is potable and accessible water, clean water is hard to come by. And I know you love long showers, playing in open fire hydrants and listening to the faucet flow, but that water is being wasted! It is really so easy to save water even if it’s only a few ounces, but many of us don’t know where to start. As such I’ve made you a list so you can start saving water:
Tips on using less water!
- Turn your faucets off whenever possible.
- I know long showers are nice but they use a LOT of water so cutting shower time saves a lot of water.
- Any water that you may use that isn’t soapy or has chemicals, throw on plants or trees!
- Try to wash as many clothes at the same time as you can, as doing this will lessen how much water you use to clean them!
- You should most definitely drink water, but to hydrate you could also drink coconut water or milk!
- When washing the dishes by hand turn off the faucet when you scrub!
- When washing the dishes in a dishwasher load up as many dishes as possible!
Sources
United States Environmental Protection Agency, "How We Use Water" , last updated September 5th 2017, seen September 19 2017
Kolesnikov, Ivan. Ghana Data Portal,"Water Consumption by Country" , last updated October 6th 2016, seen September 19th 2017
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