Name: ______SID # ______

Water, Water Everywhere

Background Questions: Answer using complete sentences.

1.  What is meant by the word scarcity?

2.  What are some examples of scarcities that you are familiar with?

3.  Have you ever experienced water scarcity, such as a drought? If so, what was it like?

4.  What did you have to do to conserve water?

5.  What was the cause of the scarcity?

6.  Do people always settle in places that have abundant water supplies, or do some people live in dry, desert climates?

7.  Is it possible for areas that don’t have a current water scarcity problem to acquire one in the future? Why?

8.  What if a country’s population increased? Decreased? How would that affect water availability?

Procedure:

1.  The teacher will assign you and a partner one of the following countries:

Namibia, Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Ethiopia, Egypt, Sudan, Bahrain, Chile, Costa Rica, Singapore, Liberia, Mexico, Pakistan, or Samoa. EVERYONE WILL ALSO GET THE INFORMATION FOR THE UNITED STATES.

2.  Get on the Internet and go to the site: http://pai.org/data-and-maps/people-in-the-balance/

3.  Download the data on the home page (it is an Excel sheet). Once downloaded, click on the Population Tab at the bottom of the page.

4.  Select your country. Give the population in your country in 1975, 2000, and estimated for 2025 (medium).

5.  Now click on Water Tab in the same document. Get the information for water in your country for 1975, 2000, and 2025.

6.  Do the same thing for the United States. Everyone gets info for the U.S.

7.  Record all of the information in a data table on a separate sheet of paper.

Answer the following questions: Some of this information may have to come from more Internet research or from library books and encyclopedias.

1.  What is your country’s climate like, and how might that climate affect water availability?

2.  Does the country have a high or a low population growth rate compared with those of the rest of the world?

3.  How might its growth affect water availability?

4.  What are this country’s main concerns regarding water availability?

5.  What are the most serious water problems this country faces?

6.  Is this country arguing with any other countries about water usage? If so, which other countries are involved, and how are they involved?

7.  What are some steps you think your country should do to help with its water situation? List as many ideas as you can think of. Then, choose one idea and make suggestions as to how the country can act on it.

8.  Be ready to share this information with the class.

APES