Water and health

Year level: Upper secondary Learning outcomes Students investigate the impact of water-related diseases on different communities. Use the World Health Organization's website http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/diseases/en/index.html to find out about water-related diseases such as cholera, typhoid fever, polio, malaria, worms and giardia. What are the symptoms of the disease? How is the disease spread? How is the disease treated? How can the disease be prevented? Where does this disease occur most frequently? Select a developing country to compare with Australia. Use http://hdr.undp.org/ to create a table comparing rates of access to safe water and sanitation, funding for education and health, infant mortality rate and life expectancy. Use this information and your reflections on the health, social and economic aspect of life to complete the following table: Group/person affected Impact of inadequate water and sanitation systems Impact of effective water and sanitation systems Individuals     Local communities     Global communities     Discuss Why are deaths from water related diseases most likely to occur in developing countries? Why is water responsible for more than 80 per cent of sickness in the world? How are problems of water-related diseases being addressed? Assessment task   Create a Venn diagram showing the impact of water-related disease in Australia and a developing country.