In STEEAM club on Friday afternoon, as part of our Pelham 100 Project, we had a thought-provoking moment when Adam asked whether there would be enough water in 100 years’ time.

I remembered having read somewhere that the water we have now is the same water as was drunk by the dinosaurs 250 million years ago, and is the same water that was on Earth when it was created.  Another pause for thought.

So I have done a bit of research and sure enough incredibly, in my opinion, we have been recycling the same water for billions of years.  Some people even think that the water came from cosmic particles which were around BEFORE the Earth was formed!

We have the water cycle to thank for the constant source of water.  What we can’t control is the way the water is distributed, though.  Almost all of Earth’s water is undrinkable, as it is salt water – our oceans.  Only 3% of our water is fresh.  Of this, 69% is in glaciers, 30% underground, and less than 1% is located in lakes, rivers and swamps.  Much of this water is not easily accessible to many people on the planet, hence areas of drought and people having to walk miles to find fresh water.

Perhaps that is a problem that the children in STEEAM club can try to find a solution for!

If you want to find out more, here are some interesting articles and websites to look at:

https://www.amnh.org/explore/ology/earth/ask-a-scientist-about-our-environment/will-earth-run-out-of-water  – The fantastic, science website for kids ‘OLogy’ which is part of the American Museum of Natural History website

https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/review/classroom-activities/pdf/cloudsat_web.pdf  – ‘Waterworks on the Blue Planet’ in The Technology Teacher, September 2001, by the International Technology Education Association.  This is an article written by Diane Fisher and was contributed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology.