Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mrs. Gulliver, and I'm really pleased that you're joining me to do some geography learning today.

Today our lesson is called "Water: Our Essential Resource." By the end of this lesson you'll be able to explain why water is a precious resource, and identify some of the threats to its availability and distribution.

This lesson is from our unit on natural resources, and it builds on our previous learning about what natural resources are and how we can use them.

Today, some of the learning might be brand new to you, but that's okay because I'm going to be here to help.

We've got four key words for our learning today.

So I'll say them, and then I'll give you a chance for you to practise saying them.

So our first word is fresh water.

Your turn.

Great.

Reservoir.

Well done.

Water supply.

Brilliant.

And our last one, sustainable.

Brilliant.

So, fresh water is water that is not salty.

A reservoir is an artificial lake made by humans to store water.

Water supply means the water from lakes, rivers, and reservoirs that is carried by pipes to homes and businesses for daily use, and sustainable is using resources in a way that ensures there will be enough left for future generations.

Our lesson today is split into three parts.

Our first section that we're going to be finding out about now, "Why is water a precious resource?" All living things, animals, humans, and plants need fresh water to survive.

That's why we call it an essential resource, we cannot live without it.

Many people argue that water is actually the most important natural resource on earth.

Fresh water is naturally occurring water that is not salty, and if it's clean it's suitable for drinking.

So we rely on fresh water for drinking.

Fresh water exists on earth's surface in a range of different places.

You can find it in lakes, rivers, and ice, as well as below the surface, underneath the ground, as groundwater.

Water covers a vast majority of the Earth surface, as you can see from this image.

It actually covers 70% of the Earth surface.

So, if we split the whole earth into 10 equal parts, seven of those would be covered by water.

However, only about 2.

5% of water on Earth is fresh water.

So most of the water on earth is salty water, it's not suitable for drinking, and only 2.

5% is fresh water.

Of this fresh water, this 2.

5%, about two-thirds of it is actually frozen as ice.

And this means that less than 1% of fresh water is available to use across the whole world.

I've got the first check of the day for you.

I'd like you to tell me which of these sources are fresh water.

Which of these are sources of fresh water? Well done, ice and lakes are sources of fresh water.

Seas contain salty water, so that's not a source of fresh water.

And I've got five gaps for you to fill in here.

Although water covers about of the earth's surface, only about of water on Earth is water.

Fresh water is occurring water that salty.

Why don't you turn to the person next to you and see if you can fill in those blanks? Great job.

Well done.

Although water covers about 70% of earth's surface, only about 2.

5% of water on Earth is fresh water.

Fresh water is naturally occurring water that is not salty.

I'm sure you got all those right, well done.

So, in the UK, in the United Kingdom, we have a regular water supply, we're able to use water regularly in our homes and at school and in businesses.

I'd like you have a little to think about all the different ways that we use water in the United Kingdom in our everyday lives.

I've got Lucas here to help me and he says one of the main ways that we and animals use water is to drink.

I'm sure you thought of that with your partner too.

Here are some of the other ways that Lucas thought of.

We use it for washing; we wash ourselves, our food, our hands, our teeth, our clothes.

We use it for cleaning; cleaning the house, cars, dishes, medical equipment.

We use it for flushing toilets, for watering plants and crops, for cooking.

And in industries, many factories making different items use water in that process.

I wonder if you came up with all those ideas, or maybe you came up with some of your own.

Great job.

Got our first practise of the day.

First of all, I'd like you to talk to your partner and think of at least two important ways that we use water every day.

And then, second of all, I'd like you to imagine that all the sort water supplies in your local area have been polluted, they are not clean.

I'd like you to write a short diary entry showing how your day would be different without access to fresh water.

So you might have spoken about some of the important ways we use water, and you might have included some of these reasons: drinking, washing, cleaning, flushing toilets, watering plants, or cooking.

And when you were thinking about your diary entry, you might have included some similar ideas to this.

"Dear diary, this morning I woke up and brown, dirty water came out of all our taps.

We couldn't drink any of the water from our taps, we had to go to the shop to buy bottled water to drink with breakfast, for making mom a cup of tea and for me to bring to school.

I also had to use the bottled water to brush my teeth and to have a quick wash.

Dad said it would be difficult to clean all the bowls and plates, and that we wouldn't be able to use the washing machine to clean our school uniform if all the water supply was contaminated.

Let's hope the clean water is back soon." I bet you came up with some great imaginative ideas of your own.

So now we're going to have a look at where our water resources are.

Water exists in a variety of forms and locations on earth.

It can be found as a gas like water vapour and steam, a liquid, water, and a solid, ice; so we can find it in three different forms. So we can see here we've got it as a gas where we've got water vapour rising from hot springs.

It can be found as a liquid in rivers, lakes, and the oceans and seas, and as a solid when it's ice.

And the water on earth moves between these bodies of water from oceans, rivers, lakes, reservoirs, into the air and form clouds when it gets heated up, and then it falls to the ground again as precipitation, which might be rain, snow, or hail.

And it continues going round and round and round, and this is known as the water cycle.

For many 1,000s of years we on earth have collected rainwater as it is a free and essential resource, and water can be stored behind dams in reservoirs or tanks.

And reservoirs, that image at the bottom there, are artificial lakes made by humans to store water.

And a dam, that top left image, a dam is a structure that is built across a stream or a river to hold water back.

So they're often used in the creation of a reservoir.

So there's some of the ways that we store water to use it.

I've got a check for you.

True or false? Water on earth is always found as a liquid.

Well done, that's false.

Here's some statements to help you justify your answer.

A, water on earth can be found as a solid, liquid, and a gas.

Or B, water on earth can be found as water and ice.

Well done, it's A.

So I've got a map here of the world, and I've got many different countries and they have got a key, showing you countries that are in red that do not have enough water to supply the people that live there, and the businesses.

And I've got countries in blue which have got more than enough water, they've got a water surplus, so more water than is needed to help those populations living there.

And then I've got the orange which are countries which have just enough water, and I've got the green countries who have got enough water for their populations and are getting closer to that water surplus, having extra.

And it's estimated that one-fifth of the world's population live in areas where there is not enough water.

So if we lined up all the people in the world and put them into groups of five, one out of each of those groups would live in an area where there is not enough water.

So around the world, there are many, many people who are living without access to enough water.

Now, added to that, we also have a problem that people live without access to clean water, so some people live without access to enough water and some people live without access to clean water.

And it is estimated that over 700 million people live without access to clean water, and this is about one-tenth of the world's population, about 10% of people living on the earth do not have access to clean water.

And the availability of fresh water in different places across the world is influenced by both natural and human factors, and the way that water is used also varies between and within countries and is linked to things like the latitude, the climate, and the amount of agriculture and industry in a place.

I'd like you to have a quick think.

Can you think of any natural and human factors which would affect how water is used in different places around the world? Well done.

You might have come up with things like latitude, climate, storms, flooding, and droughts.

They would affect the availability of fresh water in some places in the world, and how it is used.

And for human factors you might have thought of agriculture and industrial use, how big the population is and how fast that population is growing, poor water infrastructure like leaking pipes or water pollution.

They would all affect how much fresh water is available to people in different places.

I've got a task for you.

I'd love for you to create a spider diagram of all the different forms and places that water resources can be found on earth, or if you'd like to present the information in a different way, that's also fine.

When you finish that, I'd also like you to have a look at the map that we were thinking about earlier.

And I'd like you to point to two regions that have a water surplus, more than enough water, and I'd like you to point to two regions that do not have enough water.

I'm sure you'll do a great job.

Here's my spider diagram of all the different forms and places that water resources can be found on Earth.

I've said it can be found as a solid when it's ice on mountains and in icebergs, it can be found as a liquid in rivers, lakes, streams, and seas, and it can also be found as a liquid when it's stored in reservoirs and tanks.

And lastly, it can be found as a gas, and steam and water vapour in clouds.

And here are some of the regions that I've highlighted that have a surplus.

So I've highlighted Greenland and Iceland at the very north of the world there, I've highlighted countries such as Ecuador and Colombia in South America, I've highlighted Mongolia and Papua New Guinea and New Zealand, as well as Madagascar and Angola are some countries in Africa that have got a water surplus.

They've got excess water, extra water than what is needed.

I wonder if you found some of those regions as well.

And then these red areas, they're the areas that do not have enough water.

I wonder if you chose some of these.

I've got Mexico there in North America and I've got Chile in South America.

There's South Africa in Africa, we've got Spain and Portugal in Europe, we've got India and Pakistan, as well as the Philippines and South Korea in Asia.

So I wonder if you chose some of those areas as well.

We're gonna move on to the final part of our lesson today, about why water resources are under threat.

So as we mentioned earlier, access to clean, fresh water supplies is an increasing problem on every continent.

And that world map showed that, didn't it, there were countries in every continent that had water problems, that did not have enough water.

The United Nations recognises and highlights the global water crisis every year on World Water Day, March the 22nd.

So they have decided to have a day each year to try and think about the global water crisis and how we can all help towards that.

We're gonna have a look at four countries that do not have enough water in a bit more detail here.

We're going to find out about some of the reasons why these countries do not have enough water.

So we're gonna have a look at Mexico, Chile, Portugal, and India.

So Chile is in South America, and Chile has had a mega drought which began in 2010.

And drought means there is less rainfall than expected, and Chile has had an incredibly long drought.

And this has meant that fresh water resources are reduced.

The country has also experienced record high temperatures and more frequent heat waves.

And there's a picture there of the Atacama desert in Chile, which is one of the driest places in the world.

So Chile has not been receiving as much rainfall as expected, and this has meant that there is not enough water in the country.

Portugal in Europe has had not enough water for different reasons.

Agriculture in Portugal has affected the country's water supplies.

In 2018, approximately 80% of the country's water supply was used for agriculture.

So that only left 20% of the water supply to be used for people in their homes and for other businesses as well.

Some newer crops which have been planted in Portugal, such as avocados, require a lot more water than traditional crops such as oranges.

And that's why the agricultural industry in Portugal is using so much water, and that has therefore affected water supplies in the country.

In Mexico there's different reasons, again, and it's been poor facilities in Mexico which are one factor that have contributed to the country experiencing problems with water supplies.

And it's estimated that currently between 30 and 40% of the country's water supply is actually lost due to leaks from pipes and storage tanks in the distribution system.

So of all of the water supply in Mexico, 30 to 40% of it is just lost when it's being transported around the country, out of leaks from pipes and storage.

And that's one of the reasons why Mexico is experiencing problems with water supply.

Finally, in India, again, they've got different reasons why their fresh water supplies are under threat.

And in 2023 it was estimated that India had 18% of the world's population but only 4% of the world's water resources.

So it's got a very large population and not a lot of water resources around the world.

Added to that, more than half of India's rivers are polluted by human activities such as agriculture, industry, and dumping untreated sewage in them.

So it doesn't have very many water supplies anyway, and then half of their rivers are polluted.

So this adds to a significant lack of fresh water for India's population.

So we've had a look at four different countries with four very different reasons for why their water resources are under threat.

I'd like you to have a think.

Which of the following factors may contribute to reduced water supplies in a country? Well done, it's all of them.

Drought, pollution, leaking pipes, and high levels of agriculture and industry can all affect the water supplies in a country.

Our global water use must be sustainable, we must all use and preserve water responsibly to ensure there will be enough water resources left for future generations.

It's the job of all of us to use water sustainably.

In 2022, the average person in England and Wales used over 140 litres of water each day.

So 140 litres is an awful lot, so even in England and Wales we could also be using less water in helping to preserve the supplies.

What ideas can you think of to conserve and preserve precious water supplies? Have a think with the person next to you.

I thought of a few ways that we could reduce our water usage.

We can switch the tap off when we're not using it.

So if we're brushing our teeth, we could switch it off while we're doing that.

We could only put the washing machine on when it's full.

We can have short showers instead of taking a bath.

We can use the short flush setting on a toilet.

We can try to wear clothes more than once before washing them, and we can collect rainwater for watering the garden or washing cars, things like that, so that we are also helping to preserve water supplies.

Our final tasks of the day, and I've got three tasks for you now.

The first thing I'd like you to do on the map is locate those four countries that we looked at which have water resources which are under threat.

So I'd like you to label Chile, Portugal, Mexico, and India.

Once you've done that, I would then like you to match each of these threats to the four countries that you've just labelled.

So I'd like you to match a mega drought to one of the countries, between 30 and 40% of the country's water supply being lost from pipes to one of the countries, more than half the country's rivers are polluted by industry to one of the countries, and then, lastly, about the high levels of agriculture.

I would like you to match that to one of the countries you've labelled as well.

Then the final task I would like you to list your top three ideas for people in the UK to use water more sustainably.

So I've put three tasks for you to have a go at.

I'm sure you'll make a great job of doing them.

Have a good go.

Here's my map with our four countries labelled, I'm sure you labelled them all in exactly the same way.

Well done.

And then I mapped each of those threats to the country; so the mega drought was Chile, the water supply being lost from leaky pipes was Mexico, the polluted rivers was India, and the high levels of agriculture was Portugal.

And then your final job was to think about ways that people in the UK could use water more sustainably, and you might have thought of some of these ideas.

About only putting the washing machine on when it's full, about wearing clothes more than once before washing them, switching off taps when you're not using them, collecting rainwater in a water butt for watering the garden or washing the car, using the short flush setting on the toilet, and having short showers instead of a bath.

So just to summarise our learning about water, our essential resource today.

We've learned that water is an essential resource, but access to fresh water around the world is unequal.

Fresh water can be found in various forms, including rivers, lakes, reservoirs, and as ice.

Approximately 1% of the world's water is available as fresh water.

Many countries are experiencing reduced water supplies for reasons such as climate, drought, agriculture, industry, and pollution, and our use of water must be responsible and sustainable.

Thank you so much for joining me for today's geography lesson.

I hope to see you again soon, bye-bye.