How We Use Water – Water, Air and Weather (Primary 2 Science and Elementary Technology) | Ganzaa

Water, Air and Weather

Lessons

Primary 2 · Science and Elementary Technology

Water, Air and Weather

3 lessons

Lesson 1 of 3

How We Use Water

12 min

Let's begin

Ishimwe wakes up. He drinks a cup of water. His mother pours water into the pot to cook porridge. Then he washes his hands and his face.

The sun is not even high yet. But water has already given him a drink, cooked his food and washed him clean!

Today you will count all the jobs water does at home and at school. Then you will learn how to save it.

Water at home: follow Uwase for one day

Let us walk with Uwase and watch the water.

Morning. She drinks a cup of water.
Her mother cooks beans in a pot of water.
Uwase washes her hands before she eats.
After the meal she washes the plates.
Her mother washes the school uniform.
The goat drinks from a bowl.
Uwase pours water on the young bean plants so they grow.
In the evening she bathes.

Count them. That is eight times in one day! And that is only one girl, in one house.

Look again at the words in bold. All those jobs fit into four groups:

Drink. People drink. Animals drink too.
Cook. Beans, rice, porridge, tea.
Clean. Hands, plates, clothes, your body, the floor.
Grow. Plants in the garden need water, like you do.

Water at school

Now look around your school. Water is working there too.

There is drinking water for the class.
There is a tank or a jerrycan for washing hands after the toilet.
Someone cleans the classroom floor with water.
The cook uses water to make the school porridge, and then to wash the cups.
The school garden gets water so the vegetables grow.

Same four jobs: drink, cook, clean, grow. Water is busy all day.

Every drop cost somebody work

Water does not walk to your house by itself.

Somebody carried that jerrycan up the hill. It is heavy. Your arms ache and your neck aches. In some places, a family pays money at the tap: a few Frw for every jerrycan.

So when we pour water away for nothing, we are pouring away hard work and money.

Worked example: how much water can you save?

Mugisha's family used to wash under a running tap. They used 6 jerrycans of water every day.

Now they wash in a basin instead. They use only 4 jerrycans a day.

How many jerrycans do they save each day? Take away to find out.

6 take away 4 is 2.

They save 2 jerrycans every day. That is two heavy jerrycans nobody has to carry up the hill.

And in two days? 2 and 2 more make 4 jerrycans saved. Small savings add up fast.

Ways you can save water today

Close the tap while you soap. Wet your hands, close the tap, rub the soap, open the tap, rinse. Your hands get just as clean.
Wash in a basin instead of under running water.
Tell an adult about a dripping tap. Drip, drip, drip. It looks like nothing. But drips fill a whole jerrycan while you sleep.
Give old water a second job. The water you washed vegetables in is not rubbish. Pour it on the flowers.
Close the jerrycan properly so water does not splash out on the path.
Take the water you will drink, not more. Half a cup you do not want is half a cup wasted.

Tip

Say the handwashing rule like a little song: Wet. Close. Soap. Open. Rinse.

And before you pour water away, ask one question: does this water still have a job to do? Vegetable water can still water a plant.

✦

Try it yourself

Answer in your head first. Then look underneath.

Keza's mother puts rice into a pot of water and lights the fire. Which job is the water doing: drink, cook, clean or grow?

Answer: cook. The water is cooking the rice.

Name three ways water is used at your school.

Answer: many answers are right. Drinking water, washing hands, cleaning the floor, cooking the porridge, washing cups, watering the school garden.

Ishimwe uses 3 mugs of water when he leaves the tap running. He uses only 1 mug when he closes the tap while he soaps. How much water does he save?

Answer: 2 mugs. Work it out: 3 take away 1 is 2. He saves 2 mugs every single time he washes.

A tap in the school yard is dripping slowly. Should you worry about such small drops?

Answer: yes. One drop is tiny, but the tap drips all day and all night. Those drops could fill a jerrycan. Tell a teacher so it can be fixed.

Uwase's family carried 5 jerrycans on Monday and 3 jerrycans on Tuesday. How many jerrycans in the two days?

Answer: 8. Count on: 5, then 3 more makes 8. Somebody carried every one of them.

Quick check

Match each job of water to an example.

Tap one on the left, then its partner on the right.

Note

What you learned today:

Water does four jobs: drink, cook, clean, grow. It does them at home and at school.
Every jerrycan was carried by somebody. Wasted water is wasted work.
Close the tap while you soap, wash in a basin, and report a dripping tap.

1Water at home: follow Uwase for one day

2Water at school

3Every drop cost somebody work