Education for a Sustainable Future

On our last day in Turkey, having arrived back in Istanbul from Cappadocia yesterday, We went on a ferry ride along the Bosphorus Straight. We visited the Blue Mosque first, and then moved onto Aya Sofia, also known as Hagia Sofia.

Aya Sofia was the first church built in present-day Istanbul. Aya Sofia was a church for 900 years and then a mosque for another 400 years. When the Ottoman Turks came to Istanbul to set up their empire, there were not many Christians left in Istanbul so it made sense to switch Aya Sofia to a mosque.

Aya Sofia is currently a museum in Turkey and has been a museum since 1924. There are detectors in the building that test for damage by earthquakes in the main dome. If there is an earthquake and the bricks in some areas have moved, then the main dome might be off its center-of-gravity.

After we had seen Aya Sofia, we went to Topkapi Palace. Topkapi Palace was the palace where the emperors of the Ottoman Empire lived. We then had some lunch, and continued on a little adventure to our ferry ride along the Bosphorus.

Originally, we were planning to take a ferry one-way along the Bosphorus and drive back to our hotel. However, because the traffic was going to be horrific, we decided to change our ferry plans and go on the Bosphorus both ways.

Because of the Spring Festival, our afternoon ferry ride had been canceled so we had to drive back to where we had lunch, and wander around looking for our ferry.

While on the ferry, we were first on the top floor, but soon moved down to the main floor because it was too windy on top. We went fairly far on the Bosphorus, but not all the way. We also crossed underneath both of the bridges connecting Europe and Asia. All in all, our last day in Turkey was very fun and relaxing.

-Kevin

After staying in Cappadocia for two days our guide took us out to get some fresh air at the Ihlara Canyon.

After climbing down hundreds of staircases we saw small dug out caves that decorated the walls of the canyon. The twists and turns of the path made the trail a nice three mile hike. A couple of pigeon nests were scattered about the canyon and some abandon houses with the doors still intact.

We followed the river and climbed over small boulders that stray from the cliffs. Our tour guide, Edip told us about the wild boars tracks that numerously showed up by the paths.

We ended in a nearby village where we had lunch. There weren’t very many people that lived in the village and the town was a great view from the window of the restaurant. We very much enjoyed that walk and it was quite refreshing.

-Becky

During the sight seeing day the Children’s World Water Forum planned we went sightseeing around Istanbul. We saw the old city walls, which still stand and are made of stones. The two major highlights of the trip were Miniaturk and the Basilica cistern. Miniaturk is a collection of models made of notable buildings around Turkey and includes Ataturk Airport in Istanbul and the fairy chimneys in Cappodocia. The Basilica cistern is an amazing relic of the Roman empire. It is a cavernous underground structure that at one time held all the water for the Istanbul area after it was carried in from outlying areas by aqueducts. There are about three feet of water still in the bottom of the cistern, which is populated by a variety of fish.

-Forest

During the Children’s World Water Forum the participants went on an excursion trip where we went to the Energy Museum. This energy plant was the first energy plant in Turkey to produce electricity for Turkey.

After many years, the energy plant could no longer provide enough electricity for Istanbul, and was forced to shut down. For a few years it was non-operational, but was eventually turned into a museum, which it still is today.

While the energy plant was in use, there were people in the control room 24/7. The machines were also so large, and weighed so much, that humans couldn’t lift them. Thus, some crane-like objects were put in the ceiling and used when the machinery needed to be repaired.

The museum currently has really interesting lighting: a lot of red on the machines, and plenty of examples of how the plant worked.

-Kevin

For the closing ceremony of the 3rd Children’s World Water Forum, there was a drumming performance by mentally disabled people. At the beginning of the show they handed out maracas and tambourines and let people come up and to use various instruments and play along. The show was loud, exciting, fun, and people were dancing everywhere.

Everyone went back to their hotels tired but extremely satisfied after the closing ceremony.

-Sara

Our travel group arrived safely in Seattle this afternoon (March 23, 2009).

We had a wonderful trip and will continue blogging about the last days of our trip over the next few days. So check back for new posts.

Today, March 17, we went to the see the exhibits about water at the adult forum.  There were stands spread to each corner of four rooms. The woman who was presenting for the World Water Council had already started her presentation before I arrived there, so you can go to their website at: www.womenforwater.org

World Water Conference

Who manages water?  The women who have to walk miles to get their water manage the water, not the men who go to all of the meetings about water and know all about the technology.  The local women know which  rivers are fairly clean, and they know the right paths to get to the closest fairly clean river.  Women are usually not at the water meetings when they occur.  It’s not that they don’t care or that they don’t want to be there.  It’s that there is a lack of communication and access.  Ninety-five percent of the people who have email don’t research about water programs.  The five percent of people who do try to find out about water programs don’t have Internet.  Most programs will post their websites and information on the Internet, so there is a lack of communication with those most interested. The key is communication.

You can improve communication by also advertising your information on the radio.  A lot of people have radios world-wide. One other way that you can tell people about your program is to go to a local city and tell people walking by.

Women are usually not at water program conferences because they have chores that are necessary to do.  They have to take care of children and do daily chores around their houses.  Therefore they don’t have time to go to water conferences.

To get more women involved with water programs you need to make the conferences easier to access.  Many women don’t have enough money to fly across the world for a conference or don’t have the time to go.  If you make the conferences closer to their homes, then they can go to the conferences.

This way you can  hopefully get your message through to more people.

-Becky

On March 17 we listened to two water action plans.  They were presented by people all over the world.

The Ram pump

by Augi from the Philippines

The Philippines has only 4% of forest left. The Philippines has a lack of clean water. But they do have springs and rivers. The only problem is how to get the water.

The solution is the ram pump. This specific pump would be favored over most other pumps because it is water powered. A solar powered pump requires sunlight every time you need it and you might not have sunlight all the time. The same goes for wind powered pumps. Wind powered pumps also require you to put up wind mills on high elevations. This could easily create problems.The Ram pump doesn’t need fuel to function and can work automatically for 24 hrs a day. It is easy to replace the parts, that have to be replaced every half year. The ram pump is also durable stainless steal and can last a long time of use. When you use the Pam pump then it allows you to have livestock and vegetation.It isn’t imported. Instead a group of people go to the location and physically show the people how to put a ram pump together. The local people who learn to use the ram pump then become technicians which gives them employment.

The ram pump won the Green award in the Philippines  and the Ashden award in London.  There international partners are Afghanistan, Japan, Thailand, and Malaysia.  If you want more information on the ram pump you can go to this site: www.aidfi.org

WaterCone and figures

by Mirco Richardson from Germany

This program is 6-7 years old and has been attempted before.  It unfortunately failed because it was not able to become affordable.

Sea water is undrinkable and river water is highly polluted.  Everyday 5000 kids die of diarrhea from not drinking clean water.  1.2 billion people lack access to clean water.

The invention that this program made is called a watercone. It can hold 3-5 liters of water and makes 1.7 liters of clean water per day. The watercone is solar powered. It has two parts to it. The bottom tray that is round and has a wall around the edges. The top is a cone shape that has a curve inside the walls of the cone. The watercone works step by step:

1. pour salt water into the bottom tray
2. float the top cone on top of the salt water
3. let it sit (could be on the top of a flat roof were there is sunlight)
4. the after a while in the curves of the cone you should be able to see the clean water
5. tip the cone over and pour the water out
6. enjoy your clean water

The water in the bottom of the tray evaporates up to the cone and drips down into the curved edges into the cone. by evaporating he water leaves behind all the salt and pollution.

This program has had 1,500 email orders from Individuals, Local dealers, NGO’s, Governments, Local producers, Cooperate contributors, Regional Distributors. The water cone has won the 2008 Energy award globe and the Kyoto World Water grand prize for 2009.

Villagers have been saying “far better than what we had before” to the watercone.

-Becky