VITALITY

SLOGAN: Close you tap and take a nap! MISSION: To teach the people the things that are happening with different tools and ways so they can make a better place for living. VISION: The blog will have many likes, and it will reach everyone so they can have moral sense. VALUES: Cooperation, courage, dignity, equality and generosity.

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PROJECT VIDEO

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GALÁPAGOS ISLANDS

In this blog, I found an interesting topic, this is the “Galápagos Islands”. Is such an interesting topic as the people that live there have different ways to save water, because they live near the ocean. I’m going to talk about the systems they created, who created them or get the idea, and other things. So continue reading if you’re interested in this theme!

The Galapagos Islands were discovered in 1535 by father Tomas Berlanga. They were known around the world as the “Enchanted Isles”. They are located about 1,000 km from Ecuador and are composed of 127 islands, of which 19 are large and 4 are inhabited. 97% of the total surface was declared National Park in 1959. In the past, the Galápagos National Park struggled to enforce the law that protects the reserve from harmful fishing activity.

In 1986, the Galapagos Marine Reserve was created and extended to its current area in 1998, making it one of the largest marine reserves in the world. Also, in 1998 the Ecuadorian government enacted the Galápagos Special Law, a legal framework to protect the Galápagos with which they could keep to be involved in the management process that helps the reserve succeed. The government is one that keeps telling different ways to conserve water apart from the people that live there.

Right now, we can see that there is an impact but not all the people follow what they have to do, so they can save more water. The cause of this is because the population keeps increasing and there is a pressure on water supplies.  Few of the Galapagos Islands have fresh water, and those that do, get water from rainfall or groundwater. Floreana and Isabela Islands have to import their drinking water and groundwater supplies. Another one is San Cristobal, this has a scarce supply but it is good quality because it comes from surface water. 

There’s not that many options that they have as they are limited because they live around the ocean and there’s more salt water. They only can save water from the rains or from their groundwater, but the groundwater is not in all the islands; there's also a limited amount of islands that have groundwater. However we still do both of them, for different reasons like: in agriculture, for things in the house, for energy, for drinking water and other things.

To summarize, we learn that in Galápagos Island there exist limited ways to save water. The history of them and how they were known before.  The connection between how they save water even if they don’t have many ways and the ways that we also use those and for different things.With this we can have an idea, that is difficult living there and that if we have more ways to conserve, why we don’t do it?.

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ANCIENT EGYPT

For this blog, I'm going to choose the way that Ancient Egypt saved water, their type of system and the history that they changed. This civilization is surprising as they did a lot of amazing things and their history is memorable until the present day.

The civilization of ancient Egypt was indebted to the Nile River and its dependable seasonal fooding. The river's predictability and fertile soil allowed the Egyptians to build an empire on the basis of great agricultural wealth. It almost never rains in Egypt, where approximately 95% of the land is desert. For that reason, almost all the drinking water and water required for farming comes from the Nile River. You may think that the Egyptian people will have enough water as long as the Nile exists, however the civilization increases as time continues. Also the Nile passed through many countries and this caused problems to egyptians. Egyptians are credited as being one of the first groups of people to practice agriculture on a large scale. This was possible because they developed systems for farming.

 There are not many people that act or do something in the part of  agriculture that have water conservation. Normally it says in general or the farmers, but I read that the earliest and most famous reference to irrigation in Egyptian archaeology has been found on the mace head of “King Scorpion”, which has been roughly dated to about 3100 BC. He was shown in the mace holding a hoe and digging a canal, this demonstrates how he was looked by his subjects. In other words, how he had a strong connection between power and water. This is very important as in Egypt the water control was one of several important factors that contributed to the emergence of the ruling class and bureaucracy. And he showed his significance because he laid the rules about irrigation and water usage. 

Egyptians hold a lot of impact in saving water as they needed to do that to survive the year. They had a lot of control in water and flood and because of this they were an important part for the development of “hydraulic civilizations”.  They created different types of systems to conserve water and use it in their fields or farms. One of them is the basin irrigation, this practice allowed the ancient Egyptians to control the rise and fall of the river to best suit their agricultural needs. Egyptians also invented a system of canals that they dug to irrigate their crops. Besides, they built gates into these canals to control the flow of the water.

There exist many similarities between the ways they conserve and collect water and today’s ways. There is a system very similar in the current age that the Egyptians used. The name for the egyptians is  “Shadoof” and ours is “Capturing and storing water”.The Shadoof is a hand-operated device for lifting water. The shadoof was a long tool on a seesaw type of bottom, with a weight on one end and a bucket on the other. And “Capturing and storing water” is collecting water from storms in buckets. These two systems are for saving water and using it in agriculture. 

Finally, there exist some connections between the way they used to save water and ours. Also, we get to know that Egypt had a lot of difficulties as the only source of water they had was the Nile. Another thing, we now know about the King Scorpion and how important it was to know how to conserve water or strategies to do it, to be a ruler in Egypt. And about the systems they created to survive in their country.

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HARRIET STRONG

I selected Harriet Williams Russell Strong as the topic of the blog because she was an amazing person.  She has a strong connection with water conservation as she created a system for water storage and flood control. Also she is an important figure in the Whittier family.

She was born in Buffalo, New York, on July 23, 1844. In 1852, her father moved her family west to California. Once again, Harriet’s family moved in 1861 to Carson City, Nevada, where she met her future husband. She married Charles Lyman Strong at the age of nineteen, this pair bought 320 acres of land from Pio Pico, the last Mexican governor of California, in 1867. They built a house on the ranch, but after some time Charles became bored and tried to start a new mining business. Regrettably, he failed and made a huge debt that lend to his suicide in 1883. Even though all of this Harriet continued her life, raising her 4 daughters, and even accomplished a number of amazing things.

She became interested in ways to irrigate dry land,  while living in her property “Rancho del Fuerte”. In search of a stable crop,  Harriet came upon walnuts. Walnuts require constant moisture in order to thrive so she designed an irrigation system for her walnut grove. By 1887, her walnuts began to flourish and, at 25 miles long, became the largest in the county, earning her the moniker “Walnut Queen”. Also in this year she patented her invention of a system of dams and reservoirs for water storage and flood control. In 1917, she went before the Congress and presented a plant that she had designed to dam the Colorado River.

She made a lot of impact in agriculture. That much, that her irrigation and conservation inventions allowed walnuts to flourish in the semi.arid Southern California soil. In addition, Strong advocated for water conservation and women’s rights all of her life, Sadly, on a trip back to her ranch in September in 1936, Harriet Russell Strong was involved in a fatal car accident. In 1935, the Hoover Dam was completed using some of Strong’s ideas that she presented in the Congress years before. In 2001, Strong was elected to the National’s Women Hall of Fame.

There exist some connections between Strong’s inventions and nowadays water conservation. Her system “dams and reservoirs” makes some plants grow a lot and it makes it easier to plant onto semi-dry lands. And we use it for the growing of different plants only because we have more technology than before and that makes better opportunities to create things. Also the way that she stores water is a bit similar with the drip irrigation system, the differences are that she’s were located in ways that the water will go to the plants until needed and the current one is that this one goes to the roots with the help of a plastic tube.

In conclusion, Harriet Strong was an astounding woman that fought with all her might not only for water conservation but also for the rights for womens. She invented a system that helped a lot in her time and ours. The government used her ideas to improve agriculture. These days, humans created new ways for water conservation and storage but we still use in some parts of the world her system. And until the day she died she went with her beliefs.

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¿Por qué debo ahorrar agua?

This new blog is about a book for kids. The title of the book is “¿Por qué debo ahorrar agua?”, it was published in 2001 by Jen Green.  As the title says the book is about why it is necessary to save water and how we can do it?

This astounding book is about a family that didn’t save the water until their neighborhood tells them the importance of water. This book is specially for kids but adults can also read it. The story goes from the kid that thought that there was a lot of water and because of that he could waste water as much as he wanted. But his neighbor Cristina says that it didn’t rain that much and everyone had to conserve water. The kid didn’t understand and Cristina said that if people don’t save the water would run out and people won’t have anything.

The author wanted to show that there exist people that don’t know how to save water. And in his book he wants to give ideas to this type of person. Also you can guide your family or friends by telling them if they want to reserve water they can do a lot of things like: closing the tap while brushing our teeth, filling the washing machine, collecting the rainwater, and other things.

 With this explained I also want to give some recommendations to preserve water. You can do a lot of things but I will say 3: first, you need to keep a close eye on your water bill to help spot leaks; second, defrost food in the refrigerator instead of using running water; finally, wash your food in a pan instead of running water from the tap.

In conclusion, if you start using ideas to conserve water then this will be helpful to another person that needs this resource. By doing all of this you are helping to reduce the burden on water treatment facilities, saving money and energy. Also, it aids the prevention of food shortage and starvation. Now that you know what do you think if you start saving water?

VIDEO OF BOOK:

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WATER IS FOR LIFE

The blog is about a song that talks about the importance of water. The song is about 3:42 length; the song was created on 27 mars 2011; the composer of this song is Ronn Simpson, the program was in Fiji Television Limited IUCN, and there were also volunteers. This music is helpful because it inspires the young ones.

The principal topic of the music is that water is for life. It explains that water is needed in everything like: when the land is dry, when there’s too much sun, etc. Water is for all living things and the conservation of water will make us happy and healthier. We should work together to have clean water and treat it as our treasure.  In the present we have to be careful of this resource, the only person that can do it is “you and me”.

The composer wanted to express In the lyrics the way that people can be happy by making a greater future. He created this song with the perspective to teach all the people that they need to protect one of the things that are functional for our life. 

Some of the advice that I want to share to save water are: turn off the water while brushing your teeth, when watering plants apply water only as fast as the soil can absorb it, pass ideas to conserve water onto your employers, partners or schools.

To finalize, we can have clean water as it says in the music if we work together. You can create a better life by managing how you use the resources that you have. Also if you teach the people younger than you, they can realize the good thing that is water. This will help our environment. By saying this, if the water can be protected you can feel blessed!

*VIDEO

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SAVE WATER

The topic of this blog is the conservation of water. I chose a poem to explain the topic. This poem was created by “sudarsh” in January 2012 with the title “Save Water”. It’s a short poem that tries to explain the importance of saving water.

The poem tells us that we think that we have abound of water, and maybe we have but every drop counts and if we keep the tap open all day and night, it only results in wasting water. We waste when we brush our teeth or soap our feet, we keep it open but we can’t fix it or shut it tight. Also when we buy a bottle, some people drink all the water and waste the rest but other one’s drink a portion when we can use it for practical things like watering a plant. The water can have many purposes as it’s nice and cool.

The author wanted to transmit an important message with this poem so that people can think over or think twice before doing something that could lead to the waste of water. He wanted to convey that you should start taking importance in this matter because it’s not a game. 

 As I’m saying this, I also want to say that you should start saving water and you can do it in different ways such as: taking a short shower, installing a water-saving toilet flush system, fixing any leaks in the tap or toilet, and other things.

To summarize, if every person puts a little effort in doing things even if it is minimal just to conserve water, the world will get better. Another thing is that all people can do this, and it will help the future generations. As we already have many problems with the consumption of water. So, fight for yourself and the people you love!

*POEM BY SUDARSH

Save Water by sudarsh

The leaky tap drips day and night. / Just fix it right or shut it tight, / It seems the ea. Published at the web's largest poetry site.

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How did I save water yesterday?

Yesterday, I did a lot of things that were about saving water. I went to the house of my aunt and she was washing the vegetables. I saw that she wasted a lot of water because she kept the tap open and I told her that she needs to close the tap so we can conservate water. Also, I told that she can collect that water and use it for plants.