Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Geo Active Book

1.List the main reasons for water scarcity
Water pollution, population growth, land degradation, variations in climate


2.What is a drought? What type of hardships do you think that a drought could cause if you were living in a village in a poor country such as Ethiopia?
Drought means a long period when there is no rain and people do not have enough water.
I think the hardships would be like this...
  • always starving for water
  • no rain so the crops may stop growing
  • no natures growth

3.How does land degradation affect the supply of fresh water?

4.(a) What is EL Nino?

Elnino is the wind that refers to a warming that develops every three to five years in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Peru. That probably is a main cause of drought

(b) Why does EL Nino often cause drought in Australia?

Because the EL nino is accompanied by a reversal of air pressure across the Pacific, resulting in high pressure systems building up most of Australia

5.Observe the map showing the global effects of El Nino in 1982~83

(a) What effects does EI Nino have on the availability of fresh water?

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Geo Active Book

1.What percentage of the world's supply of water is fresh water?
A: 2.5 per cent

2.Where is the world's supply of fresh water found?
A: 2% is found in ice, 0.49% is found in ground and soil, and 0.01% is found in the atmosphere, rivers and lakes


3.Even though the supply of fresh water is abudant it is still a problem. Why?
A: Because the fresh water on the earth is getting less because of run off


4.Observe the map of world average annual precipitation (opposite)
(a) Describe the changes in rainfall that occur as you move from the southern to the northern
tip of Africa.
A: In northern tip, it will rain more than southern tip

(b) Describe the changes in rainfall that occur as you move from western to the eastern tip of
Australia along the Tropic of Capricone.
A: It will rain often in eastern tip


5.Observe the map above of water availability per person
(a) Which parts of the world appear to have a large amount of water available per person?
A: South America

(b) Which parts of the world appear to have a small amount of water per person?
A: Europe

6. Observe the diagram of water use
(a) What are the main uses of water?
A: Water is mainly used for Agricultural

(b) Which uses have increased the most over the last century?
A:

Monday, November 16, 2009

Bintaro Lama

On Thursday November 5th, we went to a little villedge called Vintaro Lama.
It took almost an hour to go there.
As I arrived, something smelled so badly, but I didn't say it in words because i thought its rude.
And I soon found out that fetid smell was coming from a grey river that was flowing next to me.


First, I went to the station called Sand filter.
Women over there told us that a pomp look for water in ground and they filter them through the sand filter to make water cleaner. Those waters are not potable but everyone are using those water for their shower.

Secondly, I went to the station called SODIS.
Woman over there tought us that SODIS is for killing bacteria.
And they also tought us how to fill those petbottles.
First, they wash the bottle with soap and brush. then next, they fill the bottle with clean water making sure there is no air in it. Because if there are air in the bottle then, jerms are going to gather on the bottle.

Third station was called, Water Quality Test. They use few equipments to do this test. They are 3 short tubes and red mater. They connect those 3 tubes together and hold the bottom part, check if they can see a little mark at the bottom. If they can see, that means it is a potable water.

After the field trip, I was bit happy. Because I think I've learned a little more than I did at first place.

Friday, November 13, 2009

Water Treatment Plant

On Thursday 12th Nov, I went to water treatment plant for studying water.
We looked around stage 1 to stage 6.

In Stage 1, many garbage were removed from the dirty grey river water through coarse and fine filters.

In Stage 2, they add Alumn in water and coagulate the dirts in water.
Dirts got coagulated and made disgusting brown flocs.

In Stage 3, they were making floc away from water to get rid of them.
The water was getting cleaner than the first.

In Stage 4, water was filtered through 1m of sand to make water much cleaner.
The sand was really deep like 6m.

In Stage 5, they were adding chemical to kill bacteria in the water.
If they don't add this special chemical, then people will always get stomachache because of the bacteria. So we have to thank this chemical.
In Stage 6, I saw a big control panel that shows all of information around the water treatment plant. I was overwhelmed by the number of buttons and switches on the panel.

At the end, we saw a little movie that review everything we've saw that day.
After the movie, we got 2 quizes about the movie. I rose my hand to answer the quiz but it was too slow. Sadly, I couldnt get a prize. But it was still fun because I got to know more staffs about water.