Poll by the Italian School

Water is the essence of life. In your opinion it is a resource
inexhaustible: 34
renewable: 27
non-renewable: 28
sufficient to the human needs: 35
insufficient to the human needs: 36

Which activity depends on water?
domestic: 49
agricultural: 78
industrial: 12
tourist: 10
social: 11
In your opinion the distribution of water is an issue
political: 32
economic: 56
social 21
geographical: 43
tourist: 8
Is there a disparity in the distribution of water among rich and poor countries?
YES: 66
NO: 3
Don't Know: 11
Is water shortage a problem in your country?
YES: 44
NO: 28
Don't Know: 8

Are you conscious of how precious water is?
YES: 79
NO: 1
Do you think you are responsible for the preservation of water?
YES: 33
NO: 25
Don't Know: 22
Do you know that our school is developing the school project "Water-the Blue Planet"?
YES: 72
NO: 8
If yes, how have you got the information?
from the teacher involved in the project: 69
from the mass-media: 5
other sources: 6

Do you consider that your school should take part in such a project?
YES: 70
NO: 2
Don't Know: 8

How much do you know about water as a limited source of life?
100%: 27
75%: 29
50%: 18
25%: 6
0%: 0

Do you have any idea of the qualities of the water in your area?
YES: 47
NO: 8
Have no idea: 25

How rationally is water used by your local community?
100%: 4
75%: 40
50%: 15
25%: 17
0%: 4

How much are the local authorities interested in water cleaning and its reasonable use?
100%: 0
75%: 15
50%: 18
25%: 40
0%: 7

Have you ever take part in activities regarding water pollution prevention?
YES: 17
NO: 63

Would you like to work on the purpose of the project?
YES: 52
NO: 2
Don't know: 22

(This poll is implememnted among the students of the Italian School during 2003-04. The results taken have been processed by the same students).

Texts from the Italian school

Literary text no. 1

The Waste Land


Here is no water but only rock
Rock and no water and the sandy road
The road winding above among the mountains
Which are mountains of rock without water
If there were water we should stop and drink
Amongst the rock one cannot stop or think
Sweat is dry and feet are in the sand
If there were only water amongst the rock
Dead mountains mouth of carious teeth that cannot spit.
Here one can neither stand nor lie nor sit
There is not even silence in the mountains
But dry sterile thunder without rain
There is not even solitude in the mountains
But red sullen faces sneer and snarl
From doors mud cracked houses
If there were water
And no rock
If there were rock
And also water
And water
A spring
A pool among the rock
If there were the sound of water only
Not the cicada
And dry grass singing
But sound of water over a rock
Where the hermit-thrush sings in the pine trees
Drip drop drip drop drop drop drop
But there is no water

From T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land
lines 331-358

Literary Text no.2

The Canterbury Tales
The Prologue

When in April the sweet showers fall
And pierce the draught of March to the root, and all the veins are bathed in liquor of such power
As brings the engendering of the flowers,
When also Zephyrus with his sweet breathe
Exhales an air in every grove and heath
Upon the tender shoots, and the young sun
His half- course in the sign of Ram has run
and the small fowl are making melody
that sleep the night with open eye
(so nature pricks them and their heart engages)
Then people long to go on pilgrimages
And Palmers long to seek the stranger strands
Of far-off Saints, hallowed in sundry lands,
And specially, from every shire’s end
In England, down to Canterbury they wend
To seek the holy blissful martyr, quick
To give his help to them when they were sick.
From “The Canterbury Tales» by
Geoffrey Chaucer


Literary Text n. 3

Laudes Creaturarum
Altissimu, onnipotente, bon Signore,
Tue so le laude, la Gloria e l’honore et onne
Benedictione.

Ad te solo, Altissimo, se konfano,
et nullu homo ene’ dignu te mentovare.

Laudato sie, mi’ Signore, cum tucte le tue creature,
specialmente messor lo frate sole,
lo qual è iorno, et allumini noi per lui.
Et ellu è bellu e radiante cum grande splendore:
de te , altissimo, porta significatione.

Laudato si’, mi Signore, per frate vento
Et per aere et nubilo et sereno et onne tempo,
Per lo quale a le tue creature dai sustentamento.

Laudato si’, mi Signore, per sor’ acqua,
la quale è multo utile et umile et preziosa et casta.

Laudato si’, mi Signore, per frate focu,
per lo quale ennellumini la nocte:
ed ello è bello et iocundo et robustoso et forte.

Laudato si’, mi Signore, per sora nostra matre terra,
la quale ne sustenta et governa,
et produce diversi fructi con coloriti fiori et herba.
Laudato si’, mi Signore, per quelli ke perdonano per lo tuo amore et sostegno infirmitate et tribulatione.

Beati quelli ke ‘l sosterranno in pace,
ka da te, Altissimo sirano incoronati.

Laudato si’, mi Signore, per sora nostra morte corporale,
da la quale nullu homo vivente po’ skappare:
guai a quelli ke morranno ne la peccata mortali;
beati quelli ke trovarà ne le tue santissime volutati,
ka la morte seconda no ‘l farrà male.

Caudate e benedicete mi’ Signore et rengratiate
E serviateli cum grande humilitate

“Cantico Di Frate Sole” di Francesco d’Assisi

Literary Text no. 4

La pioggia nel Pineto

Taci. Su le soglie,
del bosco non odo
parole che dici
umane; ma odo
parole più nuove
che parlano gocciole e foglie
lontane.
Ascolta. Piove
dalle nuvole sparse.
Piove su le tamerici
salmastre ed arse,
piove su i pini
scagliosi ed irti,
piove su i mirti
divini,
su le ginestre fulgenti
di fiori accolti,
su i ginepri folti
di coccole aulenti,
piove su i nostri volti
silvani,
piove su le nostre mani
ignude,
su i nostri vestimenti
leggieri,
su i freschi pensieri
che l’animo schiude
novella,
su la favola bella
che ieri t’ illuse, che oggi m’illude,
O Ermione.
Da “Alcyone” di Gabriele D’Annunzio

Literary Text no. 5

Piove

Piove
non sulla favola bella
di lontane stagioni,
ma sulla cartella
esattoriale,
piove sugli ossi di seppia
e sulla greppia nazionale.

Piove
sulla Gazzetta Ufficiale
qui dal balcone aperto,
piove sul Parlamento,
piove su via Solforino,
piove senza che il vento
smuova le carte.

Piove
in assenza di Ermione
se Dio vuole,
piove perché l’ assenza
è universale
e se la Terra non trema
è perché Arretri a lei
non l’ ha ordinato.

Piove sui nuovi Epistemi
del primate a due piedi,
sull’ uomo indiato, sul cielo
ominizzato, sul ceffo
dei teologi in tuta
o paludati,
piove sul progresso
della contestazione,
piove sui works in regress,
piove
sui cipressi malati
del cimitero, sgocciola
su la pubblica opinione.

Da “Satura” di Eugenio Montale

Literary Text 6











Text no.7

Water reflects our future

The water of all of us is the water of each of us
Together with air, the element essential to life.
The main constituent of all organisms- animal or plant. Water-seemingly available for all, and yet inaccessible to so many.
Water- a source of life when used to refresh and soothe; a deadly threat when overabundant or simply lacking.
We encounter water everywhere- in the home and in industry, in our leisure time and in hygiene, in navigation and in quenching our thirst, and everywhere it’s such a fragile commodity.
By means of Dams and ducts, taps and bottles, man had domesticated water- a major achievement of old and modern civilization.
But when you tame something you become responsible for it- forever.
So man has responsibility- for the water he has already polluted, for the water he has wasted and for the drinking water which more than 1,500 million of his fellow men are lacking.
He is also responsible for the water which he will be leaving to posterity, whether he is a political decision maker, an industrialist or an ordinary consumer, because the water of all of us is the water of each of us.
Accordingly there is no alternative- man must think again about his attitude to water and place of this vital fluid in the planetary cycle, and his actions must follow the only rational, viable course.

The Council of Europe

Text no.8

Some things to know about water
Most of the Earth’s water is undrinkable. If a large bucket of water were to represent the seawater on the planet, an eggcup would represent the amount of water locked in ice caps and less than a teaspoonful would be all that was available as drinking water.
Water is continuously recycled as a result of evaporation driven by solar energy. This cycle is estimated to consume more energy in a day than that used by human-kind over its entire history.About 6,000 children die every day from diseases associated with lack of access to safe drinking water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene. At any one time, half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from water-borne diseases. Many more people die from diarrhoeal diseases than fro HIV/AIDS.About 70 percent of freshwater goes to irrigation but in some places half or more of it never reaches the fields because of leaks and evaporation. Irrigated land in the developing world is expected to increase by 20 percent and water withdrawals for irrigation by 14 percent in the next 25 years, since irrigation increases the yield of most crops by 100 to 400 percent. It takes, 1,000 times more water to grow food for an individual than to meet that person’s needs for drinking. It takes one cubic metre of water to produce a kilogram of wheat. And it costs 90 US cents to desalinate a cubic metre of water, making sea water an unlikely source for food production.Most of the cities where large numbers of people live without taps and toilets have plentiful water supplies. And in cities with water shortages, there are rarely any restrictions on water use for the rich. Water for household use represents only about eight to ten percent of total water consumption.Half of Africans, 300 million people have no access to safe water; 66 percent, or 400 million, have no access to hygienic sanitation. Africa’s available water resources are under-used. Only three percent of its renewable water is withdrawn annually for domestic, agricultural and industrial use, only six percent of the cultivated land is irrigated and less than five percent of its hydro power potential is used. The volume of water lost in the Kenyan capital city of Nairobi because of leakages and illegal connections could meet the water needs of Mombassa, the country’s second largest city.About 90 percent of fish species depend on coastal wetlands, which are everywhere in steep decline. An estimated 95 percent of the wetlands in Italy have been lost.Regions that are pumping out ground water faster than aquifers can be recharged include the western United States, northern China, northern and western India, north Africa and west Asia.Some of the world’s freshwater resources are simply disappearing. They include the Aral Sea, which covered 68,000 square kilometres in 1960 and has since lost 60 percent of its area and 80 percent of its volume; Lake Chad, which has shrunk to about one fifth of its former size in 40 years; and the Colorado River, which no longer reaches the sea in the dry season.Fears about the safety of tap water have led millions of Americans to switch to bottled water – about one quarter of which comes straight from the tap. One make of “spring water” was found to come from an industrial plant next to a hazardous waste site. Bottled water is actually less tightly regulated than tap water, but costs hundreds of times more, without taking into account the cost of transport and plastic.The “clean” computer industry is one of the world’s thirstiest. The production of a six-inch silicon wafer requires the use of 8,600 litres of water.More than 45,000 large dams have been built and half of the world’s rivers have at least one dam. Dams produce 19 percent of the world’s electrical power and account for up to 40 percent of irrigation supplies. In Europe and North America more than 70 percent of the hydropower potential has been developed compared with less than five percent in Africa, 20 percent in China, 30 percent in Asia and 40 percent in Latin America. But between 40 and 80 million people have been displaced by dams. Populations are rarely consulted about the benefits and drawbacks. Dams have led to the loss of forests wildlife habitat and biodiversity to such an extent that some countries are dismantling them. And because of silting, they often fail to deliver the energy they were designed to provide.

Text no. 9

Water. A limitless resource?

Rain, drought and downpours lead to us to the idea of water, a resource we take for granted. But are we sure there is enough for all?
Let’s read what National Geographic tells us about it.

It evaporates fro the oceans, falls on the land, runs into the rivers and flows back into the sae- water, a seemingly limitless resource. But only 2.5 percent of Earth’s water is fresh water and most of that is frozen in polar ice and snow.
Of the available fresh water, only 0.6 percent is usable. Climate change would redistribute where and when water is available, and rising sea levels could turn coastal fresh water brackish.
The hydrological cycle yields a constant amount of water, but the quality is deteriorating while the human population continues to grow. Some 80 countries already report shortage. More than a billion people do not have safe drinking water, and 25.000 die every day from water- related diseases. As water shortfalls intensify so will competition- among countries strung along a river, for example- and violence may result.
Everyone needs at least 13 gallons of clean water a day for drinking, cooking, sanitation, say water specialists. Yet a sixth of the world’s people must do with less than that. dense population create scarcity even in Africa and Asia’s wet regions.
Some water can be used again, though often it must be cleaned first. But most water for irrigation, the biggest single use, cannot be recycled. In the US about 30 percent of all irrigation water is ground pumped from the High Plains aquifer, now drawn so far it will take thousand of years to recharge naturally.

From National Geographic, April 2001

Text no. 10

What can we do to save the Planet?

In a short space of time we seriously have polluted the environment and over-used the earth resources. But it’s not too late to change the situation.
We just live to change the way we live.
About two-third of the household litter can be recycled or re-used. Look at the things you and your family throw away each week. Re-use or mend as many things as you can. Recycle all paper, bottles, cans and plastics.
You can influence shops and manufactures by what
you buy. Complaints to manufactures in the ‘80s made them produce aerosols without CFC gases. So, whenever possible, try to buy eco-products which do not damage the environment.
Avoid over-packaged goods, too. They cost more and create a lot of waste.
The way we travel has a serious impact on the environment. New road systems destroy the land and cars pollute the atmosphere. Where possible, walk, cycle or use public transport. If you have to drive, make sure your car uses unleaded petrol. If it doesn’t, get a catalytic converter which reduces exhaust fumes.
Conventional forms of industry cause a lot of pollution. Coal, oil and gas produce harmful greenhouse gases and these natural resources will soon run out.
So, scientists are looking at alternative forms of power. Solar and wind power for example, may be cleaner and cheaper alternatives.

Text no.11

Interdependence
We are part of the earth

We are part of the earth and it is part of us.
The perfumed flowers are our sisters; the deer, the horse, the great eagle, these are our brothers.
The rocky crests, the juices of the meadows, the body heat of the pony, and man-all belong to the same family………
We know that the white man does not understand our way. One portion of the land is the same to him as the next, for he is a stranger who comes in the night and takes from the land whatever he needs.
The earth is not his brother but his enemy, and when he has conquered it, he moves on.
He leaves his father’s graves behind and he does not care.
He treats his mother, the earth, and his brother, the sky, as things to be bought, plundered, sold like sheep or bright beads.
His appetite will devour the earth and leave behind a desert………
The earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth.
This we know.
All things are connected like the blood which unites a family. All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth….. Continue to contaminate your bed and we will one night suffocate in your own waste.
Chief Sealth

(These texts are studied and analyzed during the school years 2003-04 and 2004-05)