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Monday, September 26, 2016

The Water Poster

What I am taking is called Water class. This class talks about how we use water, what percentages of water we use, and how much water other people use. We also do experiments or experiences in this class, like bring water from the river all the way back to the school. What I will be talking about here in my blog is an assignment known as the Water action project. My action Project is mainly a poster, that will hopefully ( if I achieved all the requirements) be on a side of a bus in the near future. This poster talks about the usage of how much water an adolescent, a South African adult, and an American adult uses or wastes. (Keep in mind that the reason I use at least fifteen gallons less than the average adult is because I don't do many water chores daily. I still do chores, but not always water related, and not daily.) This poster is mainly supposed to visually tell people about how much water we use, and how much water the other country uses. It should also show people that we use too much water compared to countries that are on the other side of the world, even if those countries waste almost as much as we do. I am mainly proud that I have finished this assignment, and I have high hopes of putting this poster on public display.


JN. (2016) The Water Poster
In my final draft, it isn’t clear what the poster looks like, so I will give you a short summary. The graph background is supposed to look like as if there were piles of news articles about water crises and water shortages, all piled onto each other. I made this collage by copying and pasting the news articles of the websites, and stacking them onto each other. This is supposed to represent how much information and how much news there is about water crises around the world. But we still do nothing but stack them onto a pile. For the data itself, there are three categories: America, South Africa, and Student ( student as in me). The data is in the graph are shown as text stating about how much gallons and liters they use. The graphs represent what percentage of water are used in the average person’s everyday household. For this graph, I do not want to compare the water for the viewers. Rather, the viewers who are looking at the poster will compare the charts themselves. If I had more time, I might put in more data on different countries in the final draft, but for now, I will only have a one on one country comparison. I will also put in my own.


When trying to calculate the time it would take to walk 6 km with one’s water, I had to use three factors; the weight of the average person in one’s country, the weight of the water, and time it would take to walk a kilometer. What I first did was I found all the information I needed to. First, I looked up the info on how much water the average person in one's country use. Then, I needed to find out how much time it would take to walk a kilometer. It would be 12-20 minutes, so I chose 13 or 15 min as my time factors. I would find the average weight in one’s country. Next, I multiply the weight by 20%, as the safest weight you should carry would be 20% of your body weight. I would then divide the weight of the water by the weight of the 20%, and get how many times you could go between destination A and B over and over again. Next, I multiplied it by 6 kilometers ( which is takes 1 hr and 30 min), turn the hours into minutes, and get the unreduced answer. I would finally turn the minutes into hours, and get the reduced, final, answer. For South Africa, it would take about 25 hrs, and it would take about 2 more for Americans.


The reason I picked South Africa is because when I think of water shortages and little usage of water, I think of South Africa. Little did I know, South Africa has a much more stable usage of water, despite the fact that the average American uses at least more than 14 gallons more than an average South African. I had always thought that all the South Africans would have to work hard getting the least amount of water there and back. If I do pick out more countries, then it will mainly be countries that have a poor government and have people walking for miles just to get water. When I was walking for water, I had thought about the other people in different countries, trying to do 6 times as much as I did.


When I brought water back to class, I knew the people in Asia or the Middle East had much more work than I did. But calculating how much water I  would really have to carry, I realized I couldn't do much in life. I  would have to miss school, couldn't have fun, or even have a social life. I am grateful that I live in a country that has a seemingly unlimited supply of water all around, and you can acess anything with the tips of your fingers. I only carried a portion of  the water I needed, and was ok carrying that water. But my class and I had wheels and we were getting the water from close to the school. We didn't do anything compared to the people in India or Middle East. We should all be grateful for what we have, and not waste time on complaints if we didn't get what we want. If we were like any other country in the world, then we would have less water, less items and less happiness.



Cites needed for this project

Images
Name: Map Showing Global Physical and Economic Water Scarcity 2006 gif. Made: 2006 Cite:Map Author: BCC Ne Name:WWDR4 Water scarcity.PNG Made: March 26, 2015 Cite:Map Author:Axelsaffran
Name:Teesta 1 ...The story of a Dead river Made: 2014 Cite: Map Author: Unknown
Name: DFID/ Russell Watkins Made:2010 Cite: Map Author: Russell Watkins
Name: File: California Drought Status Oct 21 2014.png Made: October 21 2014 Cite: Map Author: Michael Brewer
Name: File: Mwamongu water source.jpg Made: June 6 2006 Cite: Map Author: Bob Metcalf
Name: File:World Water Day (4462056297). jpg Made:March 25 2010 Cite: Map Author:GDS Infographics
Name: Flint Water Crisis, Iowa Caucus Debacle, Obama signs The TPP Acronym TV (55) Made: February 4 2016 Cite:Map Author:Dennis Trainor Jr
Name: What Color is You Water Made: October 13 2012 Cite:Map Author:I Love Mountains. Org
Name: The Great Indian Water Walkathon Made: June 21 2016 Cite: Map Author: Indo Asian News Service
Name:1989 and 2014 Made: May 16 2015 Cite:Map Author: Glenn Weiss
Sources
Page Title: US Indoor Water Use /Watersence/ US EPA Made:2016 Cite: Website Author: Unknown
Title Page: How long does it take to walk 1 kilometer Made: 2016 Cite: Website Author: Unknown
Page Title: Typical House Hold Water Consumption/ How much water is used/ Capr Town rain and grey water use Made: Unknown Cite: Website Author: Unknown