A typical American will use over 100 gallons of water per day, while a person living in the developing world could only have 8 gallons of water. Educate others about the lack of clean water worldwide by having people participate in the following challenge:
- Have each person write down everything that he or she uses water for in daily life.
- Look up and assign water amounts to each activity on each person's list. For instance:
- showering—4 gallons per minute
- bathing in a full tub—36 gallons
- flushing the toilet—4 gallons per flush
- washing hands—4 gallons per minute
- brushing teeth—4 gallons per minute
- doing laundry—43 gallons per load
- Now challenge everyone to see who can use the least water in one day. Assign a special prize or recognition to people who keep it below 8 gallons.
- Allow people to have unlimited amounts of drinking water (you don't wanna send people to the hospital).
When people report back, discuss what everyone learned. Ask questions like
- What was the hardest part of life without water?
- How long you think you could live with just 8 gallons of water each day?
- Who did you tell about the challenges of going without water when you were doing it? Did they know that people abroad deal with this problem every day?
Source: Southwest Florida Water Management District
