Environment

Water

As you can deal with the topic of air in the module on climate change, this module focuses on water, the earth, plants and animals.

The most common connection on Earth is water. It is an integral part of plants, animals and people. Thus it is no surprise that access to clean water was designated a human right by the general assembly of the UN in 2010. However, as unproblematic as access to clean water is for you, it is not so for many people in developing countries. In sub-Saharan Africa, for example, 40% of the population does not have access to clean drinking water. The fact that 80% of sewage from cities worldwide flows untreated into rivers, lakes and oceans is worrying and in developing countries it is as high as 90%. Indeed, this water is not only polluted by household sewage, but also by poisonous waste from industry and mining as well as fertiliser and pesticides from agriculture. These poisonous substances spread throughout the whole environment via the water cycle.

Find out through the following three exercises how many liters of water you use in your daily activities at home, how water is used globally and which consequences water pollution has for plants, animals and people.

Sources

Vogel, Sebastian [RedIn] (2003): Ökologie. Wechselbeziehungen zwischen Menschen, Pflanzen, Tieren und der unbelebten Natur. Hildesheim: Gerstenberg
http://www.welthungerhilfe.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Themen/Wasser/Fact_Sheet_Wasser_2013.pdf