Systems sdg6 Clean water and sanitation

Address water issues in a systemic way, in order to ensure access for all (under acceptable sanitary conditions) and ensure sustainable management of the resource.

For example:

Photolanguage and mindmapping methods

  1. Divided students into groups of 3 or 4. Each group has a set of photos representing an aspect of water management. They describe the set of photos and what it says about water. Possible examples of photos:
    • usages of water (religious ceremonies, irrigation in the desert, tourism, luxury swimming-pools, etc.);
    • access to water and sanitation (person having to walk far away to get water/running water, water scarcity for humans and animals / area with a golf course irrigated regularly, public toilets/absence of toilets etc.);
    • impact of human activity on humans and the environment (dying fish in a river with industries in the background, dried out rivers, health problem due to polluted waters, conflicts, dried out wells, etc.);
    • indirect use of water (clothing store and shrinking Aral Sea, drought in Spain and strawberry consumption in winter in Switzerland, etc.)
    • governance issues (privatization of water by companies, well construction campaigns leading to overconsumption of the underground waters, construction of a water distribution infrastructure, etc.).
  2. In plenary, the teacher draws a mind-map with what students have identified. Links between different parts of the mindmap are drawn and discussed.
  3. Discuss unsustainable features in the system. Use one colour to identify unsustainable features.
  4. Discuss what action could take place in order to make the situation improve. Another color is used to point this out.