Mar 23 2009
The Best Resources For Teaching & Learning About World Water Day
Seventeen years ago, the United Nations designated March 22nd as World Water Day. It’s designed to bring attention to the fact that over one billion people in the world are without access to adequate water, and focuses attention on the growing issue of “water privatization” — forcing many people to pay private companies exorbitant prices to obtain the necessary water to survive.
In addition to events that took place yesterday, many more are scheduled throughout the world during this coming week.
Here are my picks for The Best Resources For Teaching & Learning About World Water Day, and are accessible to English Language Learners:
World Water Day is the title of a series of photographs from the Sacramento Bee.
Here’s another slideshow showing World Water Day events in different countries.
Here are two photo galleries from the United Nations about World Water Day.
The Water Around The World slideshow provides audio support for the text.
The New York Times has a video on a neat simple solution for clean water.
Did you know it takes 5,500 gallons of water to produce two pounds of roasted coffee? That’s one of a number of amazing water statistics you can find on a Wall Street Journal interactive graphic they recently published.
Safe Drinking Water is a site developed by the Academy of Sciences to highlight worldwide water issues. It has several good videos that are closed-captions, along with an atlas showing which countries have less or more access to water resources. It’s definitely accessible to Intermediate English Language Learners.
Here are some games designed to help people learn how to conserve water:
UNICEF has a good game called Water Alert! about water issues in the developing world. It provides audio support for the text.
GOOD Magazine has an infographic called Walk This Way: Making The Right Choices To Reduce Your Water Imprint.
The British newspaper The Guardian has several online videos related to World Water Day.
The Green IQ Game has several different modules, including one on water.
The CBBC Newsround has a very accessible Guide To Water.
The Pani Game comes from WaterAid, iand you have to help Embet get water to his village in Ethiopia. There’s a fair amount of text, but it’s probably accessible to high Intermediate ELL’s.
The BBC has two useful interactives — one is a map of “water hotspots” and the other is a “Fact File.”
Here’s a Red Cross slideshow on water issues.
Water Conservation Around The House is an interactive sharing ways to conserve water.
Decide who gets water in California by playing this game.
Ten Things You Should Know About Water is a good infographic.
The Bonneville Environmental Foundation has very engaging carbon and water calculators to determine your environmental impact. In addition, their suggestions for how to reduce them are equally well-done.
Find Water Polluters Near You is an interactive from The New York Times. You can type in your zip code and then learn about nearby companies cited for polluting local water.
The Times also has a video called Toxic Waters.
As always, feedback is welcome.
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