Sample Questions & Answers for discussion

Tailor questions for appropriate age level

Q. Where do you get your water? (for Seattle, Washington)

A: Two watershed sources provide the majority of water for the system. About 70% is provided by the Cedar River Watershed. The remaining 30% comes from the Tolt River Watershed (29%) and wells at the Highline Wellfield (1%). From these sources, water travels by large pipelines to neighborhood storage areas and then on to home, business, and institutional users where it is monitored and measured by water meters. Water is cleaned, treated, and continually tested as it travels through the system to ensure that it is of the highest quality.

Q. How much water do people in use in Seattle?

A: Seattle's Regional Water System serves over 1.3 million people including customers in the City of Seattle and surrounding cities.

Q. How much water do you use each day?

A: People in Seattle use about 100 gallons per person each day.
Flushing toilets…5-7 gallons per flush
Taking a shower…30 gallons
Washing your hands…1 or more gallons

Q: How many people on earth do not have clean water, do you think?

A: 1.1 billion. That's one out of every 6 people on Earth. That’s equivalent to 3.5 times the entire US population.

Q: How many people on earth do not have basic sanitation, a toilet?

A: 2 billion. That's one out of every 3 people on Earth. That’s equivalent to over 6.5 times the entire US population.

Q. If most people in the world do not have faucets/sinks like us, where do you think they go to get their water?

A. rivers, streams… which are often dirty water sources from human waste (when people don't have toilets, and when countries don't have wastewater treatment plants, human waste ends up being deposited directly into rivers), livestock (cattle and goals are using the same water sources as humans), agricultural runoff (chemical pesticides and fertilizers) and industrial waste (from factories in cities).

Q. What about the people without toilets, where do you think they go to the bathroom?

A. in corn fields, in the yards surrounding their houses, near rivers and streams

Q. What do you think can happen if you drink unsafe water, or don’t have proper sanitation, a toilet? What are some illnesses children can get from unsafe water?

A. You get sick. diarrhea… some die.

Q. How many people die each year from drinking unsafe water?

A: 5 million. And most of those are children under the age of five. That’s the equivalent to two planes crashing every hour and everyone on board dying… or 100 times the number of people that fit into Safeco Field dying each year.

Explain how long women and children have to walk each day to get water…create a picture for the kids to visualize…

walking up steep, rocky hills, often times barefoot, no shoes…Some up to 6 hours a day. Imagine walking with your mom for 2 miles with a heavy container of water on your back? Every day. That means most of your time during the day is spent fetching water. That means you don’t have time to go to school, to learn how to read and write, you don’t have time to play with your friends – no time to play soccer or other games. And then the water you’re fetching/carrying is dirty. So, you’re sick a lot of the time. Not very fun, huh?

Show FILM/DVD – We recommend showing the 10 min. film on Bangladesh

Q. What is sustainability?

A. Lasting well into the future. Constructing basic, low-cost water systems in developing countries may sound simple, but it is not. Many water projects stop working after a few years because the community cannot fix the project when it needs repairs. Just like our houses and cars, even the best built water projects still need repairs every once in a while. So, some community members have to be trained like plumbers to make repairs on the projects, and spare parts have to be available locally (these villagers can't go online and order the spare parts they need - it has to be available in a location convenient for them to travel in person and buy it). Communities also have to have a system for collecting funds to buy the spare parts, like our water bills that are mailed to us each month. That way, when a hand pump needs repairing or a section of pipeline needs to be replaced, the money is already there to go and purchase the materials needed to get the water system working again as soon as possible.

Q. What is hygiene education?

A. Washing hands after you use the bathroom, washing your hands before and after you eat, being able to take a bath (just like your parents tell you!)

Q. What is a latrine? Hanging latrine?

A. A latrine is like a toilet - like what you might use at a campground. It's not as fancy as our bathrooms in our houses, but it's safe because it disposes of human waste properly into a pit.

A hanging latrine is not a safe way to go to the bathroom. Hanging latrines are usually flimsy structures built on stilts over rivers or small streams. They usually provide very little privacy. When hanging latrines are used, the human feces ('the poop') goes right into the water or into an open sewer - the same water that is used for bathing and even drinking. Hanging latrines are very smelly and unpleasant, but they are very common in places like Dhaka, where poor people do not have the money or the knowledge to build a healthy latrine or toilet.

Q. Where do poor people living in Dhaka, Bangladesh get their water?

A. Poor people in Dhaka get their water from a few places. Some get it from water vendors. They have to pay a lot of money for the water - as much as half of their daily income. There are also many rivers and streams in the city, where people can walk and get water for free, but they are extremely contaminated with human feces ('poop') and also waste from factories. Some people are so poor and so desperate that they beg for water. Some people, like the ones who benefit from our projects, are lucky to have handpumps or other water systems that are safe.

Q. Where do they go to the bathroom?

A. They use hanging latrines or other poorly constructed latrines which often overflow. Up to 100 people might use ONE latrine.

Q. Why is it important to involve women in water projects?

A. The women are often the ones who are carrying the water home to their families, they take care of all the needs for cooking and bathing in the household, they also take care of sick kids and sick adults. So, women are probably the most excited for a water project, because it will make their lives much easier when they don't have to walk so far and carry heavy containers of water on their backs. They also know that their children will be much healthier with clean water and safe latrines. So, when women are involved in the water project, they will make sure that the water system is taken care of very well, and that it is fixed when it needs to be. Because they do not want to go back to their previous life of carrying water and seeing their children sick. They want their water project to be sustainable, lasting well into the future.

Take Action – Ways To Help:

Q. What do you think kids in Bangladesh, India, Honduras, Ethiopia need most?

A. Safe water systems, latrines, and hygiene education projects

Q. What could we do to help?

A. Offer fundraising project ideas – (click here for a list of fundraising ideas)

In the developing world, a child dies every 15 seconds due to easily preventable water-related diseases. Yet, it costs Water 1st just $25 to provide one person in Honduras, India, Bangladesh, or Ethiopia with a lasting supply of safe water, sanitation, and hygiene education.

Here in the United States, $25 does not seem like a large amount–it could easily be spent on a Saturday afternoon, buying a new CD or going for pizza. But in the developing world, the same amount of money can make a life-saving difference in someone’s life.