Wai Care?

This terms inquiry is appropriately called 'Wa Care?' We are inquiring into water as a precious resource and how we ensure it is sustainable for all life force on planet earth. Photo credit goes to Manasseh for very cleverly capturing Room 12 who created this image with only themselves as a resource. 

We were extremely lucky to have Dr Stephen Swabey who is a water scientist at the Hawke's Bay Regional Council. As you can imagine, he is incredibly busy at the moment investigating what happened with the Havelock North water supply and the gastro outbreak. He was very detailed at drawing diagrams and sketches whilst describing to us; the Hawke's Bay water supply, aquifers, bottled water companies, how rocks filtrate, water treatment ponds and waste water destinations. We had formulated questions prior to his visit and practiced our note taking skills. He was a wealth of information and there is nothing like an expert visiting to share their knowledge and expertise. We were curious to unpack our two SHMACK water testing kits that arrived from Niwa this week. There are a lot of scientific and measuring tools that will assist us with learning how to carry out water monitoring tests.

This week we used the power of an 'analogy' to learn more about water as a resource for the worlds population. Here is Manasseh's google drawing explaining our 'bucket analogy.' 97% of all of the water on earth is salt water which represented our 10 litre bucket. We removed 250ml/one cup which reflected the fresh water that is available. However, only 1% of that water is easily accessible or in a liquid state. It is not as if we can drink a glacier! It was a powerful way to conceptualise the amount of water we really do have. So as the worlds population continues to rise, what is going to happen in generations to come with water as a sustainable resource? 

What a busy week of learning we have had with plenty more to come!