Water across the World
School pack
Pump Aid helps some of the most vulnerable and remote communities in Malawi by
providing them with access to clean water so they can live healthy lives.
We have enclosed in this school pack ideas for lesson plans and interactive activities to educate
students about the value and privilege of access to clean water and how other children across
the world are not as fortunate. These activities can be used as one lesson in conjunction with the
existing curriculum or can be additional co-curriculum activities.
The lesson plan is divided into three parts; 1) How we use water, 2) Water across the world and
3) The benefits of clean water. These can be taught as three separate lessons or collated
together as one. Extra information and useful facts are shown in the dashed text boxes.
AIMS OF LESSONS
 To explore the personal usage of water
 To appreciate that water is a universal need and also a precious resource
 To understand that access to water varies across the world
 To understand how clean water can transform lives
Lesson Plans
1) How we use water
 What we use water for
 How much water we use
2) Water across the world
 Water access in other countries
 The impact of dirty water
 Comparing daily routines
3) The benefits of clean water
 A day in the life
 Label the water pump
 Benefits of clean water
Resources for Lessons
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Daily water usage chart
Water fetching pictures
A Day in the life of Primrose (before and after clean water)
Water Pump Diagram to label
Linking the benefits of water
Water across the World
School pack
LESSON PLANS
1. HOW WE USE WATER
To introduce this lesson about water in Africa and in particular the work of Pump Aid in Malawi, students
are first asked to assess their own water usage.
Key Question
Activity
What do we use water
for?
Ask the class for 5 examples e.g. drinking, cooking,
cleaning, gardening, washing etc
How much water do we
use?
(NB the average bucket contains 8 litres)
How many buckets of water do you think are
used every time you do the following?
1) Flush the toilet?
2) Have a bath?
3) Have a shower?
4) Wash the dishes by hand?
5) Wash dishes using a dishwasher?
6) Use a garden hose for 1 hour?
7) Wash one load in the washing machine?
8) What‟s the minimum amount of water a human
should drink in one day?
Extension task: Calculate roughly how many times you
Resources (R)
ANSWERS
1) 1 bucket
2) 10 buckets
3) 2 buckets
4) 3 buckets
5) 4 buckets
6) 110 buckets
7) 12 buckets
8) ¼ of a bucket
(8 glasses of
water/2 litres)
would complete the above activities in a day then work
out how much water you use in a whole week.
Compare these answers with the rest of the class.
How much water does the
average a person in the
UK use in a day? (litres)
Answer: 150 litres. [This is the same as 2 full baths or
450 small bottles of water.]
How much water do we
use on each activity in a
day?
Have a look at the pie chart and see if you can allocate
the right proportion to each use.
What did you find the most surprising?
Daily water usage
chart (R1)
Did You Know?

The adult human body is about 50 to 65 percent water, whilst a child‟s body is about 75 percent water.

Our earth is referred to as the „Blue Planet‟ because 70% of it is covered by water. Yet 97.5% of the water is
saltwater, unfit for human consumption.

Of all the water on the earth only 1% is drinkable

While the human body can live for weeks without food, it can only survive a few days without water.

650 million people do not have a source of safe drinking water near their homes. That‟s the same as the entire
population of the United Kingdom multiplied by 11. Or 1 in 10 of the entire population of the world.
Water across the World
School pack
2. WATER ACROSS THE WORLD
Water is a precious resource, but unfortunately it is not readily available for everyone in the world. 1 in 10 people in
the world have no safe water to drink.
Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world, where over three quarters of the population have no access to
clean water. Many people in Malawi spend up to 3 hours a day collecting water. Imagine spending all that time –
missing school, missing playing with friends and family.
Compared to a person in the UK, a person in Malawi uses one fifteenth of the water we use every day! That‟s 11
litres compared to 150! And often, the water is not clean to drink.
Key Question
Activity
Resources
Imagine walking on a
journey to collect water.
Get them to imagine this journey – show pictures on
the board along the way
R2:Water fetching
pictures
Think about how you
would feel in this story,
how tired are you,
perhaps you might miss
playing with your friends
or learning at school.
READ TO THE CLASS (showing corresponding photos)
Imagine getting up at 6am every morning and walking
to collect water.
Children as young as five have to collect water.
Carrying the buckets of water back can be
backbreaking work with the weight of an average
bucket often carried on their heads being 20kg – the
same weight as a suitcase that you see people taking
on holiday.
[Picture 1:Children
walking to the well]
Often this walk can be up to 3km each way which is the
equivalent of about 17 laps around a football pitch.
Imagine how you would feel if you had to walk all this
way for a drink before school or when you got home in
the evening.
[Picture 3:Collecting
the water]
Often the well they would reach would be dry, hard to
reach and be full of dirty water.
What would happen if you
drank dirty water?
Encourage discussion, either in pairs or with the rest of
the class.
[Picture 2:An open
well]
[Picture 4:Carrying
the water home]
Read fact box
below
Drinking dirty water can lead to fatal illnesses
such as diarrhoea and cholera. This leads to
children missing school, falling behind in
education and parents being off work and
earning no living.
Comparing lives
Read through Primrose‟s daily routine before she had
access to clean water.
Write down your own daily routine (more details on
resource 3) and compare this with Primrose‟s story.
What are the main priorities and tasks for Primrose in a
normal day?
A Day in the Life
(R3) Before pump
Water across the World
School pack
3. THE BENEFITS OF CLEAN WATER
What happens if we drink dirty water?
Drinking dirty water can make people very ill. Diseases such as cholera and diarrhoea are carried by dirty water. In
many countries, children as young as eight, especially girls, are responsible for collecting water. They often carry huge
amounts in a pot or bucket on their head. Pots can weigh up to 20 kilograms the same as 20 bags of sugar. Carrying
water is not only hard work but takes lots of time.
One of the most serious effects is that girls are not able to attend school. Their health and education are directly
affected by the water their families need to drink, cook and wash with everyday.
Key question
Activity
Resources
What impact has clean
water had on Primrose‟s
life?
Now read Primrose‟s diary entry after the installation
of a pump. Notice the changes in her daily routine.
What are the main differences in Primrose‟s life?
A Day in the Life
(After Pump) (R3)
Primrose‟s life has been transformed by having an
elephant pump built in her village.
An elephant pump provides clean water to the
community. Its rope and washer construction makes
lifting water easy and its concrete shell and lid protects
it from getting contaminated (by dirt, animals, diseases
or poo)
Elephant pump
diagram (R4)
Label the pump diagram with the correct names.
What are the main
benefits of clean water?
Look at the water wheel of impacts for water. Match
the benefits to the correct heading e.g. “Health,
Education, Women and Girls etc”.
The benefits of
water diagram (R5)
Work in pairs and discuss as a group.
Can you think of anymore benefits water can bring?
How can we save and re-use water?
Water is a precious source and it is important we don‟t waste it. In countries where water is limited water is used for
more than one activity. Below are some examples:
After boiling water to cook food it can then be given to the animals to drink.
Water to wash dishes can be used to water the garden to grow crops.
Can you think of any other ways water can be re-used?
How can we save our own water? (e.g. turn off the tap whilst we brush our teeth).