Project week: ‘Drinking water and its importance – Around the world in five days’
Who is responsible for ensuring that everyone has access to sufficient clean drinking water? This was the question at the heart of a project week organised by the Hamburger Stiftung für Wirtschaftsethik for Year 9 pupils.
From 3 to 7 March 2008, Class 9b from Ohmoor Grammar School visited the Hamburger Stiftung für Wirtschaftsethik. For a whole week, the pupils explored the question of who is actually responsible for ensuring that everyone has access to sufficient clean drinking water. Is it the individual, the nation state or the international community? What role do businesses and civil society play? And what are the causes of drinking water shortages? All these questions were addressed during the project week.
The pupils conducted interviews with various experts on water issues. These included:
- Frank Kürschner-Pelkmann (a freelance journalist who has researched water issues extensively)
- Dr.-Ing. Joachim Behrendt (senior engineer at the Institute for Wastewater Management and Water Protection at the Technical University of Hamburg-Harburg)
- Benjamin Adrion (founder of the all-profit organisation “Viva con Agua” run by FC St. Pauli)
The pupils also visited Hamburg Wasser’s Water Forum, where they took part in a simulation in which they assumed the role of Indian agricultural cooperatives that are collectively dependent on a river for their water supply.