Water

You may be forgiven for thinking that water isn't really an issue when thinking about the environment because there's so much of it. Well, don't forget - we do live on an island that is surrounded by water, so you're never far from the wide rolling ocean. Plus it's always raining (well, it seems like that anyway)!

However, because most of the water on the earth is salt water it is useless as drinking water. This leaves a very small amount of drinkable water, and unfortunately a lot of this is either wasted needlessly or polluted.

Pollution

What pollutes water? Well, how many items can you come up with?

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Here are just a few examples. Tick the ones that you thought of:

• Chemical leaks/spills
• Fertilisers
• Human sewage
• Industrial waste
• Agricultural waste
• Acid rain

Wastage

Think about how often you use water in some form or another during a typical day, or even during a typical week. Once again, have a think and then see how many of the following apply to you.

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• item one
• item two
• item three

For most of those items above there are ways to save water. There are alternative ways of doing things and there are ways of reducing the amount of water appliances use but above all it's all about using your head and thinking about your water consumption.'

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