Choose Tap Incursion with Will Tait from Yarra Valley Water

On Tuesday the 24th of March we had a visitor from Yarra Valley Water called Will Tait. Through a song he was able to describe the history of water in Australia. In the beginning we had very clean water, then as cities and industry grew the water became contaminated. We could no longer drink without getting sick.

There are 250 cities like Melbourne around the world, however Melbourne is 1 of only 5 major cities in the world to have fresh water in a catchment. The other countries include the USA and Canada.

Will explored the effects on the human body … The amount of water we contain in our body is dependent on the size and age of our body. 20 litres of water is the average for 8 year old. We lose water every day- 2 percent just by normal activity including breathing, sweating and going to the toilet. Losing 10 percent will mean death- to lose that much you would need to be lost in the desert for a week.

If we don’t have enough water in our bodies this will lead to dehydration. If we are thirsty that means we are already starting to dehydrate. Signs to tell us we need to drink water include having a dry mouth, feeling dizzy, feeling sick, getting a headache or fainting.
We also discovered: Hydro- means water in greek; De- means you don’t have it. So that means dehydration means we don’t have enough water.

Will also had a series of different organs from the human body to help illustrate how the organ respond to not having enough water.
Brain- not responsive, not thinking clearly, not moving properly, feeling unwell and confused, unsettled, not able to cope with every day occurrences.
Heart – doesn’t beat properly. The needs a healthy rhythm, a dehydrated heart leads to an uneven rhythm which can lead to a heart attack.
Eyes- dry and sore.
Throat, tongue- dry and scratchy, saliva dries up and makes it difficult to swallow.
Lungs- to be able to breathe you need the lining of the lungs to have water to be able breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide, if they are dry you can’t breathe properly.
Blood- needs water as well
Kidneys- colour of urine changes, much darker and become smelly, unable to clean the inside of the body properly
Stomach and intestines- upset, hard poo.

The need for us to stay hydrated became apparent to the children in the workshops. So please pass along the message of how important it is to stay hydrated and choose tap water to help our bodies and our minds.