WATER

“Elena Cuza” School

Iaşi , Romania

STUDENTSsample: 208 subjects

At this question, 47% of subjects answered that they saw in their school taps which are out of order, 36% said that they didn’t see such taps and 17% of students abstain from giving a concrete example. The high percentage of respondents who assert that they saw taps which are out of order shows that students are receptive to this kind of problems maybe on account of the discussions that they have with the members of their family. These students will certainly evolve in a favourable way as long as we can work on their behaviour and attitude and give them responsibilities.

Item 10 concerns the students’ behaviour. Therefore, 52% of subjects answered that they saw schoolmates who didn’t turn off the taps, 38% of students declared that they didn’t see their

classmates turning off the taps, 10% of subjects didn’t know what to answer. These results can be correlated with those of the questions referring to the students’ behaviour.

At this question, 1% of students answered that they always threw waste in the water, 11% of subjects declared that they seldom threw waste in the water, 88% of subjects said that they never threw waste in the water.

The results of the question no. 12 complete the image presented up to now. 12% of subjects declared that they organized activities in their school on the responsible use of water, 25% answered that they often realized such activities, 41% of students said that they often organized this type of activities and 22% of subjects said that they never realized activities on the responsible use of water. These results can be correlated with the results of the items 9 and 10.

This question was meant to present the subjects’ opinion concerning the existence in the school of a collection system for the rainwater. Consequently 11% of students think that the school has such a system, 20% of subjects declared that they didn’t think the school had a collection system, 69% of subjects answered that they didn’t know whether the school had such a system or not. We can notice a high percentage of students who didn’t know what to answer. Maybe these results can be explained on one hand by the fact that the problems connected with the school equipment are not a point of interest for students and on the other hand, the results also show the students’ lack of curiosity for the environment in which they spend most of the time.

TEACHERSsample: 34 subjects

1. Have you ever done activities with your pupils to be responsible when using water?

On this question 21% of subjects said they have always done informing activities on the responsible use of water, 44% often, 32% and 3% seldom. The results show an increased interest of teachers for this subject.

2. Does your school have water saving devices?

Question 10 refers to the saving water devices of the school. Thus 35% of respondents believe that school has no water saving devices, 24% believe that there are no such facilities and 41% did not know what to answer. There is a high percentage of undecided subjects, which can be translated as misunderstanding the question, besides the fact that these issues are not part of the remit of most respondents.

3. Have you noticed any leaking taps/pipes in your school?

On this question, 18% of respondents said that there is a loss of water from taps, 67% no loss and 15% do not know.

4. Do you know the monthly amount of water in your school?

This item relates to the monthly consumption of water in school. Thus, 20% of subjects know the amount of water consumed, 59% do not know it , while 21% do not know. The high percentage of people who do not know water consumption in school and those who do not know is explained by the fact that these issues are not subject to their work. This question is correlated with other items that refer to the consumption (10, 13, 16).

5. Does your school have a system for water rain use?

This question aimed to capture the subjects' opinion on the existence of a school system designed for the rainwater. So 12% believe that the school has such a system, 47% said there is not and 41% do not know. There is also noticed a high percentage of respondents who did not know what to answer. As I said at the item above, these results may explain, perhaps, by the fact that, on the one hand these matters are not subject to the work of the interviewed people, on the other hand, we could say that there is a lack of interest on the part of the subjects for this issue.

PARENTSsample: 191 subjects

As to question 9, the subjects were required to answer if they had metering devices in their houses. Thus, a very high percentage, 94% of the questioned parents have water gauges in their house and only 6 % don’t have such devices in their house. This result can be explained by the subjects’ concern and interest in water saving.

This question refers to the monthly water consumption. The water consumption of 41% of subjects is below 10m3 monthly, the consumption of 46% is above 10m3 monthly and 13% of respondents are not interested in water consumption and don’t take into account how much water they consume monthly.

At question 13, which concerns the water losses in the houses, a high percentage of subjects,

93% of them answered that their taps didn’t have water losses, 4 % answered that their taps had water losses and 3 % answered that they didn’t know whether the taps had losses or not. These results are correlated with those received at question 9 and underline the parents’ concern about water consumption.

This item refers to water consumption. 11% of subjects answered that they used the washing machine once a week, 29% answered that they used it twice a week, 25 % of subjects use it three times a week and 35% use the washing machine several times a week.

These results are correlated with those received at question 10 concerning the

monthly consumption of water and in both diagrams we can therefore notice a growing tendency towards consumption.

Question 13 is meant to emphasize the respondents’ behaviour and attitude regarding the environment. Therefore, 92% of parents stated that they never washed their car in the water of rivers and lakes, 7 % answered that they seldom washed it in the rivers or lakes and 1% said that they always washed the car in the water of rivers and lakes. These percentages are satisfactory as long as the answers are correct, otherwise we can talk about an attitude change due to the wish for social desirability on the part of parents.

CONCLUSIONSStrengths Weaknesses

There is a positive tendency of students to save water as a result of the discussions that they have in family.

Teachers have no information about the school’s water consumption and the collection of rainwater, etc.. which means that are not concerned about these aspects

Parents have a tendency to save water because of high costs.

Students have an inappropriate behaviour related to water consumption as they do to realize the fact that they waste water.

There is an increased interest of teachers in informing students on saving water.

Following the results of the questionnaire, we notice that there is a tendency to save water but this is only on account of high costs. It is also remarkable the adults’ growing interest in these problems and this is a positive thing because there is a motivation.

Action PlanWatching some educational movies with a view to making the students

aware of the negative consequences of water waste.The organization of a drawing contest with the theme “Water for life” and

the selection of the best students for the creation of some stickers which will be placed in the school’s bathrooms.

Realizing some practical science lessons in the laboratory with the help of some specialists, lessons aiming at testing the pollution degree of different water resources surrounding the school.

Visiting the water purification plant and the weather station.Highlighting Water International Day, the Earth International Day and the

Environment International day by means of some specific activities The students’ peformance of some roles in plays on international themes