The Problem of Water

COMENIUS PROJECT – NOVEMBER 2011 (PPT about “The Problem of Water”) Slide 1 – Comenius Lyngby- Portogruaro - Verín

BELÉN: “Good morning, we are Belén, Lorena and Javier, first year Baccalaureate students at Xesús Taboada Chivite School.” (Slide 2) “Our High School is located in a village called Verín.” (Slide 3)

JAVIER: “ Verín is part (Slides 4, 5) of Galicia, one of the nineteen autonomous regions Spain is divided into. Galicia, in the northwest of Spain, is, in turn, divided into four provinces (Slide 6), which are: A Coruña, Lugo, Pontevedra e Ourense. Verín is in the province of Ourense.” ( Slide 7) “This is Verín.” (Slides 8, 9)

LORENA: “The topic we are going to talk to you about is: THE PROBLEM OF WATER.” (Slide 10) “Water is a limited, scarce commodity in plenty of geographical areas. This problem worsens as a result of factors such as too much water consumption, pollution...etc.”

“Spain is a country where (Slide 11) Continental and Mediterranean climates, which are warm and hot, are predominant. This means that

in most of the Spanish territory the rains are few and far between (there is scant precipitation).” (Slide 12) “ In Galicia, as you can see, it rains more than in the rest of Spain (one thousand to two thousad cubic milimetres a year).”

BELÉN: “What happens in Galicia? (Slide 13) Apparently, as far as water is concerned, we are more fortunate (luckier) than the rest of the state. We have Atlantic or Oceanic climate, which abounds more in precipitation, it is wetter, especially in the west of Galicia. In fact, Galicia has been called (Slide 14) The Country of a Thousand Rivers.”

(Waterfalls – slides 15, 16, 17), (Fountains – slides 18, 19, 20, 21), (Mist and Fog – slides 22, 23),

(Dew – slides 24, 25, 26, 27),

(Rivers – slides 28, 29)

JAVIER: “Granite (Slides 30, 31) is the most common kind of rock in our subsoil. It is quite impervious but its surface has cracks and water “is stored” in those fractures. That is the reason why there is quite a lot of water (Slide 32) below ground in Galicia.”

LORENA: “Therefore in Galicia, at least for the time being, it rains more than in the rest of Spain and we have underground waters. We seem to be privileged people. However, we have problems, especially in the Galician province we come from, Ourense.”

BELÉN: “The climate (Slide 33) Verín,

in Ourense and in our village,

is a transitional climate from oceanic, which is wet, to

continental, which is much drier. Besides, our village, Verín, is located in a valley,

Monterrei valley, (Slide 34) surrounded by

mountains, (Slide 35) and this fact affects precipitation, which is scanter in the valley.”

JAVIER: “What other problems do we have in Verín? (Problems that we share with many other regions all over the world). To mention just a few:

(Slide 36) BACTERIOLOGICAL POLLUTION: A lot of aquifers are not well insulated (there are open water wells) (Slides 37, 38, 39) so

they can be polluted by bacteria. As a result, the water reaching the fountains is not drinking water.”

LORENA: (Slide 40) “EXCESSIVE EXPLOITATION: We consume too much, both in the urban area (Verín village) (Slides 41, 42) and in the small hamlets all over Monterrei valley. Especially during the summer a great deal of wells dry as a result of scant precipitation (remember our climate is almost continental) and the use of irrigation water.” (Slides 43, 44)

BELÉN: (Slide 45 ) “EUTROPHICATION : Our river, The Támega, is affected by this problem. A river suffers from eutrophication when its water is full of nutrients. At first sight, this might seem good, but the problem is that when there are too many nutrients (for example phosphates and nitrates coming from detergents) too many algae and other organisms grow (Slide 46). Later on, when they die, they rot, and the water odour becomes nauseating (Slide 47) . The decaying process consumes a lot of oxygen and most living creatures are not able to survive. The result is an almost completely destroyed ecosystem.”

JAVIER: “This is what our river looked like in the past.” (Slides 48, 49)

“Our environment, as you can notice by comparing (slide 50) this old photo to the one on its right, has gradually deteriorated.”

“We pollute the river and kill it.”

“Our area has also been damaged by forest fires (Slides 51, 52) (our climate, the kind of vegetation (low vegetation – slide 53), human harmful intervention, have made our landscape more desert than it used to be)” “We also pollute our wells...” (Slide 54)

LORENA: “In Verín, like in the rest of the world, it is necessary for us to set the goal of a sustainable development that will allow us to preserve our little paradises (Slides 55, 56, 57 ) for the generations to come.”

BELÉN: (Slide 58) “This motto, SÓ SE PODE PROTEXER O QUE SE AMA E SÓ SE AMA O QUE SE COÑECE,

is in Galician

language, the language from Galicia, which is the official language in our autonomous region together with Spanish. The translation into

English could be: You can only protect what you love and you only love what you know.”

“Let’s get to know, let’s protect our environment.”