Verd School Podcast

This is Escola Verd and we are going to talk about different topics related to water.

The Mediterranean sea is a very big and beautiful body of water in our country. People use it to swim, to go fishing, kayaking, water skiing, windsurfing and other sports. It is important to our city's economy because a lot of tourists go to the Mediterranean Sea and all the money helps our economy. It is also important because most of the fish and other water animals we eat come from this sea. The Greeks and the Romans built a city right next to it to be able to travel and trade around Europe. We can take care of it by not throwing plastic into it.  The River Ter is the biggest in Girona. It starts at 2.400m height and ends in the Mediterranean sea. It is 208 km long and passes through 44 villages. It is used to produce electricity for factories. It is important for us because all the water we drink here is from the River Ter. Lake Banyoles is a large lake in a town near our city. There are a lot of plants and animals and many tourists come to visit it. People use it to row, run, cycle, walk, paint, relax and so on. It is important to our region’s economy, history and culture. It was the rowing location for the Olympic Games in 1992. There's a legend that says there was a monster who lived in the lake and ate people but luckily it turned out to be vegetarian!  River Onyar passes through the middle of the city. The bridges over the Onyar are “Pont de pedra” the stone bridge, “pont Eiffel” the Eiffel  bridge, and “pont de la princesa” the bridge of the princess. People use it to take photos and to cross the river. Everybody can access all the bridges. It is important to our city's history, it was built next to it in order to have more water. To take care of it people should not kill the animals that live in it. We’re going to explain how our water system works. First it rains and the water falls in the river Ter, it goes to the reservoir, to the treatment plant to be cleaned and finally it is pumped into our homes. We went to the Montfullà treatment plant and we learned in that treatment plant they provide water for the houses in Girona and the Costa Brava! First they take out the larger pieces of dirt, then with two different types of pools they filter the water: one has sand and the other has activated carbon. Only one man controls all the machines and he showed us that water consumption is very high in the morning and very low at night. According to the Catalan Water Agency we have a drought. We have 29% of water stored. We have water for less than one year. In another piece of news we read that we are on alert.  We researched a TV advertisement made by the Catalan Government to tell people not to waste water because Catalonia is running out of water. It tells us not to leave the tap on because we waste too much water. It says we cannot control the rain but we can decide when to turn off the tap.  According to Diari de Girona newspaper, Girona’s council has planned to take water from the subterranean wells of Salt, a neighbouring town. They could provide a maximum of 45,000 cubic meters per year spread over 26 days. They have also reduced the amount of water they use to clean the streets. New solutions: - the companies which provide water only give you water for a few minutes so you can’t be in the shower for a long time -You should turn off the shower while you are shampooing and washing your body even if it’s cold! - Put a bucket in the shower in order to collect the cold water while you are waiting for it to warm up: you can use it to water the plants -Fill up only a little the bottle of water in the winter as we don’t drink a lot.

Thanks for listening. We hope you learned about water in our country and you use some of the solutions proposed.

Hi, everybody! We are journalists from 6th grade B at Escola Verd. Today in our podcast we’re going to tell you about important bodies of water in our area, the water system, the drought and new ideas to mitigate it.

The Ter river is the largest river in Girona. It originates at 2.400 meters high and ends in the Mediterranean sea. Along it there are some water reservoirs. People use this body of water to do water sports. It is also important because all the water we use here is from this river. To care for this body of water, people shouldn't pollute it. Many factories have been built near it to make the most its energy. (The Ter River Route Web Page) The Onyar is a river in Girona approx. 21 miles long. People don’t use it but it makes the city beautiful. It is important to our economy because tourists come to the bridges to take photos of the river and spend money in the local shops and restaurants. (Wikipedia) Banyoles lake is in a town near Girona. It is very important to the people who live there. It is very long, 2.128m. People don’t use this water to drink, it is used as drinking water for farm animals, to water crops and to do sport. (Wikipedia)

The Mediterranean sea is near Girona and it’s very beautiful. People use this body of water to swim, to do other sports, to go boating and to go sailing.

It is important to our city's economy, history and culture. It's important for tourism, fishing and for nature. To care for this body of water, people should keep it clean and respect nearby natural areas.

Our water system starts in the river Ter and it goes to a water reservoir before going to the treatment plant. Later it goes to the houses in Girona and nearby. After the water is used it goes to another treatment plant. Finally it returns to the river Ter and ends up in the Mediterranean sea. We visited the treatment plant on a school trip. First there is a machine that removes the bigger pieces of dirt. Then they use sand and carbon to filter the water. There could be chemical accidents. Finally the water is sent to all the houses in Girona.

The Catalan  reservoirs are down to 29 percent because there is a serious drought. (Catalan Water Department website)

Some of  the actions our government have taken to address  the drought  is that they are taking underground water and adding it to the water reservoirs.  They are also taking sea water and removing the salt so we can use it.  They say we  need to change our habits and reduce water consumption. (radio station RAC 1)

To reduce some water use Girona’ council has closed some fountains and they are cleaning the Darnius-Boadella swamp and the Ter basin. They have banned cleaning the dirt on the ground with water and the Migdia Park pond won't be refilled again. ( “El periodico” newspaper)

The Catalan Government made an advert urging us to try to save water. You can often see this advert on television. They say that we can’t control the rain but we can control our taps. In it you can see that the reservoirs, the fields and everything is dry. At the end you can see a tap running and a hand turning it off. It makes us think about saving water and it will help us make a change. (Catalan Government web page)

Girona’s council is going to install sprinklers that automatically detect dry ground. They’re going to treat the water in municipal swimming pools with ultraviolet light avoiding emptying the pool by 5% every day as with the previous system. (Girona City Council webpage)

Our ideas are: not to waste a lot of water when we have a shower, we can collect the water in a bucket while we are waiting for the water to warm up and use this water to flush the toilet; when we brush our teeth we can reduce the amount of water that comes out of the tap.

Thank you for listening to our podcast and for realising the importance of water. And remember, please save water. Bye!!!