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World Water Day
“Jal Hai, To Kal Hai”
“If you have water, you can think of the future”
You are perhaps aware that 22 March is celebrated as the world water day! A school celebrated ‘water day’ and invited posters from the children of your age group. Some of the posters presented on that day are shown in Fig. 16.1
What is the message you get from these posters? Write your observations in your notebook and discuss them in the class.Have you ever felt a shortage of water at home or at school? Your parents or teachers must very often be advising you not to waste water. No wonder we celebrate water day every year to attract the attention of everybody towards the importance of conserving water.
The amount of water recommended by the United Nations for drinking, washing, cooking and maintaining proper hygiene is a minimum of 50 litres per person per day. This amount is about two and a half buckets of water per person per day. Is your family getting at least this much of water? If yes, you should consider yourself fortunate because millions of people in our country do not get enough water. What about your friends and their families? Share your experience with them.
In some places there is an acute shortage of water. Taps running dry, long queues for water (Fig. 16.2), fights, marches and protests for demand of water have become a common sight, especially during summers. Some of the newspaper clippings shown in Fig. 16.3 clearly indicate this message. Is it not true that we face acute shortage of water?
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Clippings From News Papers
Activity 16.1
Collect clippings from newspapers and magazines on the news items, articles and pictures related to water shortage. Paste them in your scrapbook and share it with your friends. List some problems faced by the people and discuss them in the class.
Water shortage has become a matter of concern throughout the world. It is estimated that in a few years from now
Fig. 16.3 Newspaper clippings
more than one third of the people in the world could face water scarcity.
Before we discuss why water is getting scarce we must know how much water is available for use on our planet.