Water is essential to life. It constitutes up to 65% of the human body and 90% of the structure of plants. Thus, if deprived of water, no living being can survive for long. Nevertheless, this fundamental element to existence is seriously threatened because of pollution of rivers, suffers shortages in certain regions of the world and costly management in cities.
2.6 billion people have gained access to improved drinking water sources since 1990, but 663 million people still remain without access to it. Lack of water affects more than 40% of the world population, with this figure on the increase. More than 80% of wastewater resulting from human activities is discharged into rivers or sea without any pollution removal. Floods and other water-related disasters account for 70% of all deaths related to natural disasters.
Why Education is crucial to achieving SDG-6
Comprehensive water education provides the necessary tools to monitor water quality in order to reduce contamination, helps to improve water use by developing greater resources for its reuse and contributes to raising awareness among communities to ensure they play an active part in improving their water management and sanitation. (Access to Learning objectives for SDG-6)
At this level, children learn to visualize the volume of water used in daily actions and habits and acquire proper hand-washing and sanitation skills. While doing so, water promotes their creative development, as it encourages them to use their imagination. (Access Educational materials here)
At this stage, learners get acquainted with the principle of water abundance and the difference with water scarcity, both physical and economic, and become aware of its existence as a finite resource. They develop their understanding of conscious water consumption, thus motivating themselves and others to change patterns of unsustainable water consumption. (Access Educational materials here)
The concept and calculation of a person's water footprint is introduced. Learners develop their understanding of human-engineered water management systems related to its collection, cleaning and distribution, thereby preparing themselves to manage competing water demands of agriculture, industry, growing populations in urban settings or wildlife. (Access Educational materials here)
Multimedia Educational Resources
Get Inspired
- The Rous Water Early Childhood Water Aware Programme - Page 62 - The Rous Water Early Childhood Water Aware Programme is underpinned by a “sustainability” framework that enables learners to see the big picture with regards to water issues. It links thinking to practice - water-saving messages are promoted at both educational and operational levels. In other words, the programme practices what it preaches. The programme involves all members of a centre’s community - children, teachers, managers and parents. At the children’s level there is Active Learning: Stories, songs and puppetry actively engage the children and help them learn to become “waterwatchers”. Application: Learning is then scaffolded by teachers who apply the learning to problem-solving – e.g. how to water the garden without a hose.
Pedagogical Resources
- Changemakers - Rohit Fenn - Fresh water availability is a major problem in several areas of the world yet we flush billions of litres of treated water down our toilets every day. Rohit is redesigning the toilet to reduce consumption.
- Chakra The Invincible - A comic adventure to support Sustainable Development Goal 6.
- Get Connected - Water In The World - This resource focuses on the importance of access to clean, safe water for communities around the world. It explores water challenges facing Australia as well as case studies on Niger and Indonesia.
Ideas for Classroom Activities
- Clean Water For All - This resource aims to define water pollution, outline some of the causes of water pollution and describe the global inequality of access to clean water.
- Water Challenge Badge - This booklet invites to explore, play, discover, and come up with some clever ways to help preserve water in our homes.
- Teacher's Notes: Why Is Clean Water Important - Students explore the difference between clean and dirty water; how people use and access water, comparing Australia and Uganda. Students will then develop a list of personal hygiene behaviours that rely on using clean water.
Multimedia Educational Resources
- SDG 6 - Water Management - A video from the ISLANDS project presenting the relevance of water management.
- Can You Live With Dirty Water - Every day, 1.1 billion people have to wash with, bathe in and drink dirty water. We can’t live with that fact. Can you?
- The 20 Litre Water Challenge - This video shows how Suzy from Melbourne is taught a lesson by Anyaka, a 14-year-old Ugandan girl. Girls in developing countries spend hours each day collecting water for their families with long-term implications for their health and wellbeing.
Get Inspired
- Israel -A scientific and cultural approach to developing a sustainable water supply for local environments - Page 26 - A number of Jewish Schools participate in the SEMEP Programme, which has been assimilated into the syllabuses for either Science and Technology or for Environmental Studies. As partners in the SEMEP initiative, Jewish Schools, which are technologically equipped for science education and for the SEMEP programme, support and facilitate the conceptual development and the acquisition of skills and habits of mind that constitute environmental literacy. The SEMEP Programme in elementary schools is taught from the standpoint that the pupils have no prior experiences relative to the topic being studied.
Pedagogical Resources
- Clean Water And Sanitation: Why It Matters - Technical Note presenting SDG 6, why clean water and sanitation matters, what are their effects, what would it cost to correct the problem and what can we do.
- Learning About Water - Multiple-Perspective Approaches - The Multiple-Perspective Tool is a valuable framework for teaching any sustainable development issue. The focus of this companion document is on applying multiple perspectives for ESD to freshwater issues.
- Water Toolkit - This toolkit explores water and sanitation in many parts of the world where these resources are limited, with information about the challenges of accessing safe water and clean toilets in the developing world.
Ideas for Classroom Activities
- Clean Water For All - This resource aims to: Define water pollution; State or outline some of the causes of water pollution; Describe the global inequality of access to clean water.
- Water Challenge Badge - This booklet invites to explore, play, discover, and come up with some clever ways to help preserve water in our homes.
- Clean Water And Sanitation - This teacher and pupil resource encourages classroom activities around clean water and sanitation.
Multimedia Educational Resources
- Ethiopia: Access To Water, Access To Education - Video showcasing how projects coordinated by UNICEF and the European Union have brought more than a hundred water points to the Machakel district in Ethiopia.
- Tell Us What Water Is To You - Nearly 750 million people do not have access to safe drinking water every day – this is more than the population of Europe. For children, a lack of safe water affects every aspect of their lives – from nutrition to education to safety.
- Running Dry: A Call To Action - This documentary explores the growing global water crisis and its staggering toll of some 14,000 quiet preventable deaths per day. Focusing on China, the Middle East, Africa, India, and the United States, Running Dry presents compelling arguments for international cooperation on water issues.
Get Inspired
- Promotion of Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Education and Water Quality Monitoring in Mangalore, India - The project aims to promote human value-based water, sanitation and hygiene education, augment provision of safe drinking water and provide sanitation facilities in schools in Mangalore. The programme, developed by The Energy and Research Institute (TERI), empowers not just students but the community to adopt adequate measures to minimize water-borne diseases. Two schools have been identified as model schools where Water Resource Centres are being established.
