Water, Water - Where? Teacher Information

TEACHER INFORMATION

Water, Water - Where? Managing Thailand's Water Resources

Strands and Outcomes

Student Activity

Water Awareness
Teacher Notes | Student Worksheet

Key Studies of Society and Environment Strands

Place and space
Natural and social systems
Resources

Outcomes

By the end of this unit, students will be better able to:

investigate relationships between water use, economic growth, living standards and ecological sustainability in Thailand
predict and explain possible consequences of human intervention in river systems in Thailand
identify the causes of conflict over water in Thailand and negotiate solutions
after considering and discussing different viewpoints and evidence, make informed decisions about how Bangkok might obtain the water it needs without causing shortages elsewhere.

Teaching Suggestions

Here is a student worksheet for teachers to consider using in this unit.

Water Awareness

The statistics about how much water each sector uses are:

Domestic 21%
Industry 9%
Agriculture 70%.

Students are also asked to estimate water usage for a week, or actually carry out a survey and record their findings. This increased awareness of students' own water usage and resources may make them less judgemental of the Thai situation.

Average daily water figures are as follows:

Activity	Water Usage
brushing teeth	5 litres
shaving	8 litres
flushing the toilet	12 litres
running the washing machine	40 - 170 litres
drinking, cooking and cleaning	8 litres
washing dishes by hand	18 litres
filing a swimming pool	up to 55 000 litres
washing the car	100 - 300 litres
watering the garden with a hand-held hose	10 - 20 litres per minute
watering the garden with a sprinkler	1000 litres per hour
dripping tap	200 litres

Average consumption varies between cities. Average domestic consumption for capital cities of Australia (kL/yr) is:

Sydney	263
Perth	330
Melbourne	270
Adelaide	265
Canberra	400
Brisbane	430
Darwin	700
Hobart	570

STUDIES Magazine, 1/97

Websites

There are no specific websites that can be recommended to supplement the existing materials and approaches in this unit. However, below are addresses for several articles that teachers may find useful for background information about the situation.

The tragedy of Pak Moon Dam
http://www.searin.org/Th/PMD/PMDn/PMDnE107.htm
A summary of a critical report on the failure of the Pak Moon Dam.

Chao Phraya Delta Research and Reference site
http://std.cpc.ku.ac.th/delta/deltacp/home.htm

Curriculum Corporation and the University of Melbourne

The URL for this page is: http://www.asiaeducation.edu.au/thailand/watrinfo.htm