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Young Reporters for the Environment: Fundamental Life Source: Water

Fundamental Life Source: Water

It all started when we found out that we had 110 days of water left where we live. After seeing this in the news, that Ankara has very little water left to be used, as the team of Young Reporters for the Environment from TED Ankara College Highschool, we wanted to inform people about water and teach them about the water that they consume every day. Considering the 6th goal "clean water and sanitation", and the 14th goal "life under water" of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, we have created a program that will help people realize their water footprints, and the importance of reducing the use of water. We selected 110 people from grade 10 and 11 and measured their water footprints, causing them to notice the amount of water they consumed. After measuring students’ water footprints, we made presentations and videos for them to increase their awareness and to be informed about water drought, their water footprint, and the importance of water.

What were the Contents of our Awareness Campaigns?

 Our actions with the goal of raising awareness consisted of a video and a presentation. Both the video, the presentation and questionnaires were on water footprint to generalize. However, topics such as the categories of water footprint, like green, blue, and grey water footprints, as well as what we can do to lower our water use in the best ways possible, were all explained thoroughly to further inform fellow students.

life source                                  

As our goal clearly highlights the importance of awareness, the idea was to give as much necessary information as possible whilst also keeping the students engaged in the presentation and video. Considering our attention span as students, a small game was also included to grab the attention, but also to see how well the audience had listened. Although the notion of raising awareness through these activities were aimed, we also didn’t want to lose our listeners and overload them with things they probably wouldn’t have remembered.

That is precisely why we prepared a-four-minute video that explained what the water footprint is by providing several examples and suggesting ways on how it can be decreased further. The presentation also included the same headlines with a different perspective as well as a variety of examples and furthermore, new suggestions. The game which was conducted on the web site “Kahoot” was on what we presented previously on the presentation. Through these actions we aimed to raise the awareness of our audience in the means of proving our hypothesis: water footprint can be decreased by actions conducted to raise the awareness of individuals.     

The Questionnaires and its Results

Both before and after the presentation and the video we asked the students to fill a questionnaire in which we gathered the necessary information to compare the effects of our informative actions. In the questionnaire we asked the audience questions to calculate their water footprint such as their shower duration, how many times in a week they use the dishwasher, the washing machine or how often they take a shower, their diets etc.

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1.2 the graph of water footprints before and after the awareness campaigns in liters/day

 The results we received were incredibly surprising as we saw that the impact of our videos and representations had lowered the water footprint 6.4% by individual and 6.5% by household in just three weeks. By doing this, we saved 352 liters/Day per individual, if people were to keep up with their reductions, at the end of a year 112,7% of water would have been reduced. In our first questionnaire the initial footprint per individual was 5488 liters a day while in a household it was observed as 21959 liters a day. While in our second questionnaire, personal use was observed as 5136 liters a day and 20539 liters a day in a household, which was conducted after our awareness campaigns.

The clear difference can be seen as 352 liters per individual in a day that was achieved in only three weeks; whilst 1419 liters in a household was observed as a difference. Considering the water footprint of the US Average per individual is about 6821 liters a day, even an almost 6.5 percent difference has the power to create a change.

“Protecting our water is not a luxury, but a necessity.”

Knowing that our world is going through a major water shortage issue, the effects of our actions can be advantageous if considered in a worldwide situation. This continues to prove our hypothesis stated as actions aimed to raise awareness of individuals’ can result in the reduction of water footprint. Albeit we used the perspectives of other teenagers such as ourselves, the fact that our generation has the ability to affect the water use of their household goes to show there is still hope for the Earth itself. As long as we are willing to fight, there will always be hope.

 

Son DüzenlenmePerşembe, 25 Mart 2021 08:21