Explore ways you can conserve water and keep it clean. Water is one of our most precious resources!
Explore Environmental Elementary to find ways to be water-wise.
- When you clean up after painting, never pour your leftover paint down the drain. The paint will travel to the sewers and into lakes and rivers. It gets in the water we drink and can hurt fish, plants and other animals like beavers.
- Wash your fruit in a bowl of water instead of letting the tap run. All that clean water is going to waste right down the drain. Any water left in the bowl can be used to water the plants in your classroom.
- When you clean the fish tank, don't throw the dirty water down the drain. Put it in a bucket and use it to water the trees in the schoolyard. The caretaker won't need to use fresh water from the hose to give thirsty trees a drink.
- Metal water bottles are better for the environment than plastic ones. It takes a lot of water to make a plastic water bottle. Most plastic bottles are used once before you recycle them. A metal water bottle lasts a lot longer!
- Fill your water bottle from a jug you keep in the fridge. This keeps the water cold all the time. You save water because you don't need to let the tap run while you wait for the water to get cold.
- Did you know that 70 per cent of the Earth's surface is covered with water? That feels like a lot of water, but only 1 per cent is safe for us to use. That's why we need to save the clean water we have!
- Wasting water wastes money! Water needs to go through expensive cleaning (called filtering and purifying) before it reaches our taps. Only use what you really need.
- Turn off the tap while you soap your hands. You can save over 300 litres of water in just one month. That's enough clean water to fill 300 milk cartons!
- Shut off all taps in the bathroom tightly. Over a year, a steadily dripping tap can collect enough water to fill 33 bathtubs!
- If the automatic tap won't turn off, tell your teacher. That's a lot of clean water going to waste.
- On average, one person uses enough water in a day to fill 900 pop cans!
- Rain barrels are a great way to collect water. You can use the water for flowers and grass, or to wash bikes and cars.
- Put litter (garbage) in its place! Litter doesn't go in the pond - it makes the water dirty. Animals who drink dirty water can get very sick. Fish, frogs, snakes, snails and salamanders might live in that pond. Don't pollute their home!
- Do you see something leaking into the sewer? If a car is leaking oil or another liquid into the sewer, tell your teacher or an adult you trust. Oil and other chemicals that leak into the sewer pollute the water.
