2

Save Water Outdoor

Don't over-water landscaping.

Water your lawn or garden early in the morning or late in evening.

Adjust sprinklers so that they don't water the sidewalk or street.

Don't water on cool, rainy or windy days.

Equip all hoses with shut-off nozzles.

Use drip irrigation systems.

Plant drought-tolerant or low water-use plants and grasses.

Use shrubs and ground cover to reduce the amount of grass.

Place mulch around plants to reduce evaporation and discourage weeds.

Set your mower blades one notch higher, since longer grass means less evaporation.

Use a pool cover to cut down on water evaporation.

Use a bucket instead of a hose to wash your car.

Use a broom rather than a hose to clean sidewalks, driveways, loading docks and parking lots.

Comenius Team from Acigol lkogretim Okulu - Turkey

3

Save water at home

Water is essential to life – all living or-

ganisms are in some way dependent on

it. Removing the tap water each day we

still don't believe that its resources would

never run out. But scientists are soun-

ding the alarm – the water is low, even

where previously it was. This is due to its

excessive use by humans, and pollution

of existing resources. Saving water is an

absolute necessity. What can we do to

protect our water resources in our ne-

arest surroundings. The most effective

way to save water is undoubtedly chan-

ging our habits.

Easy ways of saving water

1. Turn off water while brushing your teeth and mouthwash pour water into the cap.

2. Wash your hands releasing a small amount of water.

3. Try to take a quick shower instead of bathing in a bathtub. Taking a short, 4 minutes shower uses about 60 liters of water, while in a bathtub, up to 200 liters.

4. If you prefer taking a bath, do not pour water into the full.

5. Avoid flushing the toilet unneces-sarily and do not dispose any waste it.

6. Do not wash dishes under running water. When washing by hand, fill one compartment sink or a bowl with wa-ter and detergent. Rinse quickly under a small stream of running water.

7. Turn on the dishwasher when it is completely full of dirty dishes.

8. Ensure that the water dripping from a faucet or a toilet, and if so, ask the adults to repair batteries with sink and flush the toilet.

9. Do not spill water when it can be re-used for watering flowers, gar-den or cleaning.

Comenius Team from Stefan Żeromski Primary School in Poniatowa (Poland)

4

The use of rainwater

The amount of rain in Prüm is 871.6 mm per year. In Germany they use rainwater for cooling in business and industry. They use rainwater for the power of engine, too. For example: water turbine (only treated rainwater), water wheels. In Germany many peo-ple collect rainwater to flush, to wash the car and to water the garden.

Rainwater in Africa

Because rainwater in Africa is very ex-pensive, people collect rainwater in large tanks. This water is used for ex-ample for the toilets, to wash or to wa-ter the plants. Often the water is used twice: for example the water, which was used for washing, is collected for watering plants. In the Children’s Re-habilitations Centre the rainwater is collected in large tanks (5000 and 1000 liters).

Advantages of using rainwater.

If you collect rainwater you can use it for many things, maybe to flush, to wash, for cooling systems, but these are not the only things you

can do with rainwater, you can also use it practically for all things which don’t require drinking-water. Rain-water it isn`t drinking-water, so do not drink it or use it to wash the dishes, then it`s detrimental to one`s health. If you want to use the rain-water in the house you need maybe a pump system and a rainwater-barrel are or a rainwater harvesting system. If you use rainwater instead drinking-water you can save up to 200$ in the year and the costs for electricity are only 10$ in year. Also it`s good for the nature, because it raises the ground- water –level. So the reason of collecting and using rainwater is: It`s good for nature and also you can save money.

Disadvantages of using rainwater

If it is summer and it rains not enough, the washing machine can break down because of a lack of wa-ter. There are plane exhausts in the rainwater and so it would be bad for you if you would drink it. And if the people increasingly use the rain-water, the drinking water will stand longer in the pipes. So bacteria will settle down and the treatment costs will increase. If you collect rainwater i n a tank in the basement of your house or in the underground you must use chemicals to get the bad smelling and the contamination away.

Class 8a1 from Regino- Gymnasium Prüm

5

Budapest and its treasures

Budapest can boast to be the one of the

only capitals in the world with such an ex-

tensive cave system in the heart of its city.

Many of these caves have been found to

contain thermal water rich in size and

shape. More interestingly, numerous sys-

tems can be found in the Buda Hills, par-

ticularly under Rose Hill, where our school

the Áldás Primary School is situated.

The Hungarian capital is richly gifted with

many such springs, there are exactly 123

such warm and cold mineral springs located

under Budapest. Such treasures have

moulded our caves into the systems they

are today. For example, our 7 km long Pál-

völgyi (Paul Valley) and the more than 2 km

long Szemlő-hegyi (Szemlő Hill) caves are

also open to the public. Lastly, the less

popular József-hegyi (Joseph Hill) cave and

the Molnár János (John Miller) cave should

also be mentioned as they are the biggest

and oldest caves known to the experts. The

latter developed when the top layer of earth

cracked and stair-like depressions devel-

oped in them. Later, water started flowing in

the cracks. The muddy soil layers were

a barrier that prevented the surface water

from flowing deeper. The hot currents that

rose up from the depths through the cracks

brought up mineral-rich acidic water. Mil-

lions of years ago there was even also

a volcano on the site. Our school is located

in the second district of Budapest. The area

inherited its name, Rose Hill, from the Turks

in the 16th and 17

th century. They also en-

joyed the natural gifts the area provided.

Many of the thermal baths in the area were

enjoyed and further developed during their

stay in our country. Some of these include

more popular tourist attractions such as the

Király Thermal Spa, the Rudas Spa or Veli

Bej. The Molnár János (John Miller) cave,

also found in this area of the Buda Hills, is

especially interesting to scholars and scuba

-divers alike. This cave system is mostly

found underwater offering deep channels.

Over five kilometres of the caves have been

explored. The biggest charted underwater

hall is over 80 metres long and 16-26 me-

tres wide. In this hall alone there is over

23,000 cubic metres of warm water (27C).

If an ordinary kitchen water tap was in-

stalled at the bottom of it, it would take four

and a half years to empty it. The cave has

been protected since 1982, and approxi-

mately 6 km are opened to the public.

Szemlőhegy Street, which is opposite our

school, is the furthest point which has been

reached from the cave underwater by di-

vers! The spring of Molnár János flows to

Lake Malom. The name 'lake' is a slightly

grand definition for a pond that becomes

eutrophic in the summer. After a few hun-

dred metres it flows to the Danube. The

lake was already known during the Roman

Rule – divers have found Roman construc-

tions at the bottom of the pond. We are very

happy to learn at the Áldás Street Primary

School because no other school in the

world can boast about the thermal baths,

springs and underwater cave systems run-

ning naturally underneath its city and resi-

dential areas. These amazing cave systems

are currently awaiting to be named

a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Comenius Team from Aldas Utcaı Altalanos Iskola -

Hungary

6

Turkey

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8

Simple experiments with water

This year, the pupils of the first year of

the secondary school of Magliano Sa-

bina (Italy) made three experiments

about water during their lessons of

science.

The first experiment is called “don’t

open the bottle”. This was discovered

by the scientist Pascal. It’s very simple.

We need: a transparent bottle, a nee-

dle, a basin and water to fill the bottle.

With the needle we have to hole under

the bottle. If the bottle is closed, the

water doesn’t come out. On the con-

trary, the water comes out from the

holes under the bottle if you press it

with your hands. If the bottle is

opened, the water comes out from

holes because the air enters the bottle.

The second experiment is called

“Cartesian diver”. We need: a large

bottle of water, a glass full of water,

a basin full of water to fill the bottle

and a dropper as a diver.

We have to fill half dropper with the

water of glass, and then with

remaining water we test the diver. We

can see it floats. Then we put it in the

full bottle so we can see that it always

floats. Closing the bottle, the diver

moves simply pressing on the bottle.

In fact, if the water that is pushed

aside by an object that weighs more

than that object, it floats. If It weighs

less than the object then it sinks.

The third experiment is named

“three overlapping liquids”. We need:

a glass, water, oil and alcohol.

We have to pour the water in the

glass for a quarter. Then, very slowly,

we pour the oil for a quarter again

and eventually, slowly, we pour the

alcohol. Because of their specific

weight the liquids don’t mix. Water

is the heaviest. Oil is lighter than wa-

ter and alcohol is lighter than oil.

Comenius Team from Instituto Omnicomprensivo Statale

“S.Pertini” (Italy)

9

Draughts

When you think about draughts perhaps

you can think about African countries: de-

serts, hungry people and war for water. But

droughts are also one of the extreme

events which have a great impact on Medi-

terranean regions. In 2007 and 2008 we

suffered its effects over people, crops and

nature.

The rainfall pattern is generally irregular

and varies greatly between years, as a re-

sult of our Mediterranean climate. We have

two dry seasons: winter and summer and

two wet seasons: spring and autumn.

Some years, rainfalls arrive to 1.000 l/year

with hard rains in few hours, but in a dry

year there are only 300 l/m2, It rains less

than 100 l/m2 a year in some places.

Our crops need water rain. People need

water to drink and do their activities. Indus-

tries need water. All of these activities must

be analyzed and optimized to get them

sustainable. Climate change and especially

human activities can make matters worse.

Less rain (draughts) with a population in-

crease using more and more water every-

day means a big problem. Can we help to

solve it?

We, people, can reduce the greenhouse

gas emissions to reduce, delay or avoid

climate change. Our activities and our uses

of energy can help too: Less fossil com-

bustible and less energetic waste.

We can save water at home and school.

A person uses about 130 litres of drink

water every day. It means 50 m3 of water

every year. The U.N. recommend to use

only 60-70 l/person and day.

It’s worth improving water pipes to re-

duce water losses.

More effective methods to water plants

and grow crops must be studied to save

water.

We can’t increase rainfalls but we can

keep water for the draughts. In lands with

irregular rainfalls a good system of res-

ervoirs is needed.

We use rivers water but we must return

it to the river after our uses. Water-

treatment plants must give clean water

back to the river and in a point before its

extraction.

The last choice can be to build desalini-

zation plants. They are expensive

to build, expensive to produce and also

expensive for our planet: because they

need energy .

Water is a fossil molecule. There has

been a similar amount of water in the

Earth for the last 3 billion years. 97%

of it is salty. Only 1% of water is in rivers,

lakes, pounds, clouds and this is the only

water that land animals and plants need.

It’s a treasure in the Earth and we must

use it in a sustainable way.

Comenius Team from Centre Educatiu FAX ESO 2nd grade (Spain)

10

Floods

The European Union (EU) Floods

Directive defines a flood as a covering

by water of land not normally covered

by water.1 Floods can occur in rivers or

lakes by escaping its usual boundaries

mostly due to accumulation of

rainwater. Floods can bring some

benefits (recharging ground water,

making soil more fertile and increasing

nutrients in some soils)2. But in the

most cases it brings life losings,

buildings, bridges, roadways and

canals demages.

The deadliest flood occured in the

Republic of China known as the

Central China floods of 1931. The total

death toll range from 145,000 to

between 3.7 million and 4 million.

The last biggest flood happend in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Maldives as the result of the big Tsunami caused by Indian Ocean

earthquake in 2004 killing over 230,000 people in fourteen countries.

In the Czech Republic, floods are not very common.

The strongest flood was in 1997

in small village called Troubky. The

picture shows us its effects. In this

flood died 49 people and 2151 houses

was destroyed (other 5652 houses

been uninhabitable), charged were 26

bridges. Damages were, about, 63

bilions money. But this flood helped us

to prevent next floods in following

years.

Recently, in 2010 flood hit our country

again. Especially in Moravia, were

people had to leave theire homes.

Nowadays, thanks to preventive

programmes it´s much better and

easier to forecast and control flood

effects.

Comenius Team from ZS s pol. jaz. vyuc.;

PSP Wędrynia (Czech Republic)

11

The Secret of the water cycle

Have you ever wondered about how

you get clear, running water? Well now

you‘l find out. It goes round and round

the same way everytime..

E v a p o r a t i o n

Evaporation is caused by the heat of

the sun. When the sun heats the water

some of the water turns to vapour and

forms clouds.

Condensation

Condensation is when the vapour forms

clouds, all the particles are spread out.

The more particles that are in the

clouds the bigger and darker the cloud

will be. Next the wind will blow the cloud

over the hills.

Precipitation.

Precipitation is when the water particles

get too heavy for the cloud and fall out

of the cloud as rain, sleet, snow or hail.

Collection

Collection is when the water will form

rivers or streams and flow into the sea

again.

Glossary

Evaporation—when the heat of the sun turns the water into vapour.

Condensation—when the water vapour turns into clouds.

Precipitation—is when the particles fall out as snow, rain, sleet or hail.

Collection—collection is when the water collects in streams and rivers and flows to the sea

Comenius Team from Frodsham Ce Primary School (UK)

12

Used sources:

Soubor:Troubky97-03.jpg. Wikipedia.org [online]. 14.2.2013 [cit. 2013-02-18]. Dostupné z: http://

cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soubor:Troubky97-03.jpg#file

This e-newspaper deals with the topic of water saving

and increasing water quality. It was prepared by all

partner teams of the Comenius Project and coordinated

by the team from the Czech Republic. The next one will

be focused on energy saving and energy efficiency and

you can look forward it in January 2014.