Water covers 71% of the Earth's surface and is essential to life. Only 2.5% of water is freshwater, with most found as ice or underground. Water is present in all living things and critical for metabolic processes. It makes up 72% of the human body and 75% of the human brain. While essential, water pollution from industry, agriculture, sewage and other sources threatens water quality and life. Protecting water resources and reducing pollution is important for environmental and human health.

1. Water…
…the source of life

2. Water covers 71% of the Earth’s surface and that
is why Terra is also named The Blue Planet.
Planet

3. On Earth, 96.5% of the planet's water is found in
oceans, 1.7% in groundwater, 1.7% in glaciers and
the ice caps of Antarctica and Greenland and a
small fraction in the air as vapor, clouds and
precipitation.
Only 2.5% of the Earth's water is freshwater and
98.8% of that water is in ice and groundwater.
Water appears in nature in all three common states of
matter and may take many different forms on
Earth:
• water vapor and clouds in the sky,
• seawater and icebergs in the polar oceans,
• glaciers and rivers in the mountains,
• the liquid in aquifers in the ground.

4. Water is present in all Earth’s structures, starting with the vegetal cell and
being part of the animal cell too.
Without water any particular metabolic process could not exist.
The human body contains 72% water.
75% of the human brain is also water.
A living tree consists of 75% water.

5. The beauty of water is unique in its ability of
taking different forms…

7. “Water, thou has no taste, no colour, no odor, it cannot be
defined, art relished while even mysterious, not necessary
to life but rather life itself.”
Antoine de Saint-Exupery

12. But the lack of water means:
• Desert

13. • Famine
• Poverty

14. • Diseases caused by polluted waters
and the lack of hygiene

15. Water pollution
• Water pollution means any physical or
biological change in the quality of water.
• Rivers are the most affected by pollutants.
• The main causes are: the industrial
development, chemicals used in agriculture,
the growth of population in cities.

16. Industrial pollution
• Most water pollutants are produced by the
food industry, the metal and the paper
industry.
Chemical pollution
• The use of fertilizers in agriculture affects
water and groundwater. All life forms are
also affected.

17. Radioactive Pollution
• A lot of rivers from Ukraine, Russia and
Japan are polluted by radioactive
substances from the atomic plants.
Domestic sewage is 99.9% pure water and
0.1% are pollutants.

18. Polluted rivers due to
domestic sewage

19. Waste pollution

20. Industrial pollution on Chang Jiang River (China)

21. The explosion from Fukushima Power Plant
(Japan, March 11, 2011) has radioactively
polluted the air and the ocean.

22. Pollution in the ocean directly affects
ocean organisms and indirectly affects human
health and resources.
• Oil spills, toxic wastes and dumping of other
harmful materials are all major sources of
pollution in the ocean.
• The two main causes of oil pollution in the
ocean are big ships leaking oil or ships
carrying oil crashing into things in the ocean.

23. Oil pollution

24. A ship carrying oil on fire

25. Oil pollution effects

26. Attention to water!
It cannot be made!
What can you do for
saving water?

27. Check your taps to see if there are any leaks!
Have a short shower instead of a long bath!

28. Change your taps with water-saving ones!
Turn off the running water while brushing your
teeth or shaving yourselves!

29. Wash your vegetables in a bowl full of water!
Use your washing machine or your dishwasher
fully loaded!
Wash your car early in the morning in order to avoid
water evaporation, you will use less water this way!

30. Use drip irrigation in
agriculture!
This way, NO!
This way, YES!

31. “In nature there are neither rewards nor
punishments; there are consequences.”
(Robert G. Ingersoll)
Realized by the pupils of School number 1, Bicaz, Romania,
for the Comenius Project “How schoolchildren can contribute
to keeping our planet green and clean”
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This presentation reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission
cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the
information contained therein.