Go with the Flow, Conserve H2O
Presented by the
Ontario Ministry of the Environment
Take one look at a globe or map and it’s easy to see we’re living in one watery world. More than half the planet is
covered in the blue stuff, or about 70 per cent.
With a wild blue yonder this big we’ll never run out! Right? Well, not so fast. Sure, we’ve got a lot of beaches and
swimming holes, but if you’re looking for drinking water, your options are limited. Most of the water on this planet
is too salty to sip on. Check this out:
• Only 2.5 per cent of the world's water is salt-free.
• But over two-thirds of that is locked up in the icecaps and glaciers and another 20 per cent is in remote areas of
the world that can be difficult to reach.
• That leaves humans with just 1 per cent of all the Earth’s water suitable for drinking!
That makes freshwater a scarce resource and demand is only increasing. There are many places on the planet where
rivers run dry and people struggle to find clean drinking water.
Lucky for us, most of the world's fresh water is found in Canada! The bad news: people think just because we’ve got
it, we can waste it. Did you know… the average person in Ontario uses 260 litres of water per day! That’s twice as
much as countries like Germany and the United Kingdom, and WAY more than in the developing world.
What are you waiting for? Dive in!
Step 1: Identify where the most water gets used in your home
(Hint: Nearly 65 per cent of all indoor water
use occurs in the bathroom).
Step 2: Start reducing water use!
• Encourage your parents to install water-saving devices like
low-flow shower heads and toilets.
• Take shorter showers (five minutes, tops).
• Turn the tap off while you brush your teeth.
• Encourage your parents to fix leaky faucets
(a leak of only one drop per second wastes about 10,000 litres
of water per year).
Help the Ministry of the Environment and Earth Rangers protect our natural world.
Together we can make a difference.
http://www.ontario.ca/protectingourwater
http://www.ontario.ca/protegernotreeau
www.earthrangers.com
To the Last Drop
Test your water conservation skills in the relay race “To the Last Drop!” A game that will have you thinking twiceabout every bit of H2O you waste!
What you need:
• Put two buckets outside on your porch or backyard and collect rainwater in both
• Add a few drops of olive oil to each bucket to prevent mosquitoes from breeding
• Two empty buckets
• Three place markers (cones, rocks or anything that is heavy enough not to blow away).
• A park or open outdoor space to play
• Three signs that read “Washing Machine,” “Shower,” and “Leaky tap.”
• Dice
• Two cups
• Two cups with a small hole in the bottom (try using plastic pop bottles, cut the neck off and cut a hole in the
bottom).
What you need to do:
Station #1
Station #3
Washing
Machine
Start
Place the buckets of rainwater beside each other
making sure they have the same amount of water in
them.
Place the empty buckets at the other end of the playing
field. Evenly space the three markers between the two buckets and
attach one of the signs to each of these stations. The cup with the hole
goes at the station marked “Shower” and the cups without a hole go inside
the buckets of water.
Leaky
Tap
Station #2
T he
Shower
Finish
Team members will go through the stations one at a time, doing each activity the number of times they rolled
on the dice. Once the player gets to the empty bucket, he/she will dump their water into the bucket and hurry
back to hand the cup to the next person.
The object of the game is to get as much water as possible to the empty bucket. Form two teams and line them
up behind their bucket of water. To make the game more difficult, enforce the rule that players cannot cover the
top of the cup during the game. Decide how long you want your game to last and pick a person to be the timer.
Before the game begins, have each team member roll the dice and remember their number - this is how many
times the player needs to do the activity at each station.
1. The washing machine: At this station you will need to spin in a circle just like a washing machine. The higher your
number is, the more laundry you do, so the more you spin!
2. The shower: At this station dump the water from your cup into the cup with the hole in it, then catch the water
back in your original cup. Every pour represents a 10 minute shower. So, if you roll a five, switch the water between
the cups five times because you took a 50 minute shower!
3. Leaky tap: At this station, hop on one foot for every 100 drops of water that gets wasted down the drain. So, if you
roll a six, hop six times because you lost 600 drops of water.
At the end of the game, see which team gets the most water safely through the day and fills up the empty bucket!
Notice anything funny? The people who did less laundry, took shorter showers, and had taps that leaked less,
seemed to get more water to the end! What other ways can you think of to conserve water? Brainstorm some ideas
and be an eco-hero by saving water everyday one drop at a time! And when it's all said and done, remember to use
the water you collected on some thirsty plants!