CZECH REPUBLIC A little girl and the well
In a little town there lives a girl. Her name is Lisa. She is very spoilt. She doesn’t respect anything. One day she has a very interesting dream. In the dream Lisa lives in a small village in Africa. She has a great thirst. But there is no shop where she can buy a bottle of water anywhere. Lisa asked people about water but nobody answered her. Suddenly, a car arrived and everybody ran to it. Lisa saw that people from the car gave a lot of bottles of water to people from the village, so Lisa ran to the car too. But in the car there were no bottles of water left. Lisa cried and ran out of the village. There she found a well but it was empty and Lisa fell into it. Suddenly she woke up. Lisa decided to respect and save water from now on. She knows, that people in Africa haven’t got water and they are always thirsty and she understands them from now. (A. Gociek)
ITALY The Tevere River
In our country there is an important river: the Tevere River. A long time ago our ancestors called Sabini lived near the river and they could drink clean water, eat fish, cultivate plants and breed animals. They also could sail to Rome. In our country there was an important harbour on the river where people could change a lot of things. In the XVII century Pope Sixtus V decided to build a bridge in the middle of the plain. The waters of the river passed under it and there was a lot of spreads: people couldn’t sail and the spreads gave epidemics. Now when it rains there are spreads too! Today people take care of the river and can sail in some parts of it to see birds, plants and animals.
GERMANY The importance of water for our planet Water is one of the most important things on earth. It is the source of life. Every living thing needs water for its survival. Without it humans, animals, plants and even microbes would not have chance to survive. Living would be impossible.
75% of our bodies is water. The importance of this liquid becomes apparent when we are thirsty. Water is essential for our life. It is used for just about any activity we do. Two thirds of the surface of our planet is covered by water. The seas and oceans are important sources of food. Furthermore, they are the living space of millions of animate beings, most of them we do not even know. Moreover, the seas and oceans are major trade channels. Huge oil tankers and containerships use these waterways daily to support us with things we need to survive. In former times people like Columbus explored the earth via the sea. Much of what we are today is influenced by the travellers.
People who live near deserts do not take water for granted. They know the value of it. In addition to this, these people experience the terrible consequences of a shortage of water. Humans and animals do not just die; they horribly suffer until their hearts stop beating. In comparison to this there is a real waste of water in our society. Taking it for granted, as we do, is like burning money. We do not care about standing under the shower for half an hour.
As long as there is life on our planet there will be water, too. Life is impossible without it. As humans we do the most damage to our water supply and it is up to us to do small things to make big changes. We should not waste or pollute it by any means, because of greater importance than water itself is the necessity of clean water. It is just too valuable. (Ralf Gitzen)
SPAIN Energy
Energy is related to the aptitude to generate movement or to achieve the transformation of something. Energy is neither created nor destroyed, but it can be transformed. The renewable energy can be reused and the non-renewable one is very difficult to obtain. Ways of saving energy: Use the heating or the air conditioning in a suitable temperature and isolate the windows. Always buy electrical appliances of class A. Turn off the television (don’t leave it on “standby”) Use low consumption bulbs. Turn off the tap when it is not necessary. Use public transport instead of your car. Do not open the windows when the heating is on. We can all work together to save energy. Saving energy is very important to our economy and helps the environment. Raquel Morillas
HUNGARY Water Our world is a strange place, because we don’t know what we have and what we lose every day. Water is a great example for it. We all use water every day. We don’t think about it. It’s just there. We open the tap in the kitchen, take a bath or a shower. And water always runs. We do not think about water as something that is valuable, something that we should care about. This will have to change. Many people in Hungary do not have drinking water. Some of them get water to drink transported to their village in trucks. And many, many people in the world, perhaps more than a billion people cannot even dream about having unlimited access to drinking water. They live in areas where there is no water. They collect water when it rains, but it does not rain very often, perhaps a few times every year. Or they live in big cities but they are poor and they do not have a house or an apartment, they do not have services, they do not have toys, books or computers, they just live in tents or they do not even have a tent – they have nothing. And no water. We often talk about oil, because fuel is made of oil, and experts believe the world has less and less oil, so the cars of the future will have to run on electricity or perhaps on something that is not yet discovered. Water is a subject very rarely discussed but people who are water-experts think water will be more valuable than oil because the world has less and less water and some countries will have great problems finding enough. There is life without oil but there is no life without water.
Just think about it: a healthy person can live without food for about two weeks, but they cannot live without water for more than three days. We have to realise that water is the engine of our world, so we’d better cherish it.
Sára Baló 8.d (15 years)
POLAND The Stream Once upon a time a stream was flowing across a town. People drank water from that stream very willingly and they took care of it. The stream was a crowning glory of the town. Many years went by. People stopped taking care of the stream. They threw rubbish into it and they polluted it. The stream became dirty and ugly. After some time, it turned out that in the town there was no clean water. People did not know how it happened and what to do in that situation. They asked “Where did we find clean water”? So one day all the inhabitants gathered on the biggest market square in the town and they started talking about their problem with water. The stream was flowing through that square and it was listening to the conversation. “We are running out of water!” one of the inhabitants shouted. “We don’t have anything to drink!” the other man told. And then the rest of the people were screaming and crying. “What are we going to give our children?” asked someone. A small boy called Tomek caught his mum’s dress and exclaimed, “Mum!” “Yes, my dear?” she answered. “I’ve got an idea! We can clean the stream of all that rubbish!” Everyone was surprised at Tomek’s wisdom. Then, all together decided to take care of the stream and they promised not to throw rubbish into it any more. A few days went by. The stream flowing across the town was becoming more and more clear. Like in the past everyone was taking care of it. Each person from the town could draw water from the stream. By Stefan Zeromski
TURKEY Why water is needed for your body?
Water is your body's most important nutrient. It is involved in every bodily function and makes up 70- 75% of your total body weight. Water helps you to maintain body temperature, metabolize body fat, aids in digestion, lubricates and cushions organs, transports nutrients and flushes toxins from your body. If you are not getting enough water, your body will react by pulling it from other places, including your blood. This causes the closing of some smaller vessels (capillaries), making your blood thicker, more susceptible to clotting and harder to pump through your system. This can have serious implications from hypertension, high cholesterol, and heart disease. Recent studies have also linked the lack of water to headaches, arthritis, and heartburn. What if I told you that being dehydrated promotes the increase of body fat? Water contributes to energy storage along with glycogen. Without water, extra amounts of glucose remain in the bloodstream until reaching the liver, the extra glucose is stored as fat. Your body takes water from inside cells in an effort to compensate for a dehydrated state, including fat cells. Less water in your fat cells means less mobilisation of fat for energy. One of the liver's primary functions is to metabolise stored fat into energy. The kidneys are responsible for filtering toxins, wastes, ingested water and salts out of the bloodstream. If you are dehydrated the kidneys cannot function properly and the liver must work overtime to compensate. As a result, it metabolises less fat. So remember, if you are trying to decrease the amount of fat in your body, drink plenty of water. Luckily, water is a great natural appetite suppressant. There are three ways we get water into our bodies. We get it from the foods we eat, the fluids we drink and as a by-product of metabolism. It is always better to drink pure water instead of soda, tea or coffee. These products actually increase your need for fluids because most contain caffeine, which is a diuretic. Diuretics force out stored water along with certain essential nutrients.
UNITED KINGDOM Why is water so important? H2O (also known as water) has a clean taste and is transparent. Actually only 1% of the worlds water is usable to us. About 97% is salty sea water and 2% is frozen in glaciers and polar ice caps. Thus that 1% is a precious commodity necessary for our survival. Did you know? Water can be fresh but never new, it has been on the earth for billions of years! What happens if you don’t drink water? Dehydration (lack of water) can kill us faster than starvation (lack of food). Since the plants and animals we eat also depend on water, lack of it could cause both dehydration and starvation. The whole thing gets worse. Water actually contains no calories therefore it is the best way to lose weight. Our drinking water, far from being pure, contains some 200 deadly commercial chemicals! Some people are not so fortunate to get water! But not everyone in the world can just turn on the tap and get water. People in places like Africa, South America and Indonesia have to travel miles to get water and even then it is unclean. They don’t have the luxury of taps and fresh running water. Therefore, it is essential that we all work together and save water. Did you know? It takes 1L of water to make 100g of chocolate. Matthew Fesmer age 10