The numbers say it all. One billion people worldwide lack access to safe drinking water. Five million people, mostly children under the age of 5, die each year from water-related illnesses.
Both global scarcity and local conservation issues will be tackled during Chief Sealth International High School's "World Water Week" March 21 through 25. The week begins with a free public lecture on Monday by bestselling-author Robert Glennon, and concludes with an all-school fundraiser on Friday for Seattle-based Water 1st International. Chief Sealth duo Molly Freed, a senior, and Noah Zeichner, social studies teacher, have organized this ambitious event, with help from other students and teachers at the school.
Last summer, the Bezos Family Foundation selected Freed and Zeichner as Bezos Scholars – two of only 24 in the nation – to attend the weeklong Aspen Ideas Festival. At the festival, scholars were directed to create their own local "Ideas Festival."
"The festival was an amazing experience," said Zeichner. "We developed the concept of the water festival because we are both passionate about the issue. Yet Molly and I really woke up to the issue of water through our travels to Guatemala and in class at Chief Sealth."
Freed took Zeichner's Global Leadership class, which has a pretty intense water scarcity unit. The two also traveled to Guatemala in 2009 with others from Chief Sealth, in a trip coordinated by the local nonprofit Global Visionaries. While working on a reforestation team with Guatemalan students, Freed and Zeichner got a firsthand look at the country's need to conserve water. They watched the townsfolk use their water very preciously, with two-liter bottles and a drip irrigation system to water saplings.
World Water Week at Chief Sealth will include lectures and workshops promoting local conservation and global action. The week's schedule is as follows:
Monday: A free public lecture by Robert Glennon, author of the New York Times bestseller Unquenchable and professor of law and public policy at the University of Arizona. Congressman Jay Inslee will introduce the festival along with a dedication by representatives of the Duwamish Tribe. Famed global water activist Alexandra Cousteau, granddaughter of filmmaker Jacques-Yves Cousteau, will deliver a pre-recorded video message for the audience. This event is open to the public and will be held in the Chief Sealth auditorium at 7 p.m., with a water resource fair, music and refreshments beginning at 6:15 p.m.
Tuesday: An evening event in which Chief Sealth students and parents learn about environmental- and water-oriented career and college opportunities.
Wednesday: Local water activist and storyteller Peter Donaldson educates students about where our water comes from and how our wastewater is treated.
Thursday: An all-school workshop on global water scarcity.
Friday: A school-wide fundraiser to raise money for sustainable water and sanitation projects in Honduras, Ethiopia, Bangladesh and India. The school hopes to raise $12,000 for Seattle-based Water 1st International. In addition, there will be a teach-in that will include a diverse range of water-themed workshops for students and teachers.
"These projects and partnerships is what makes the job fun," said Zeichner. "It would be great if every school had the means to have an educator work on projects like this. We plan to continue this every year at Chief Sealth."
For more information about World Water Week, visit http://www.seattleschools.org/schools/chiefsealth/h2o.html.
Check out the student video on the school's World Water Week page.
