Part 1

The sun, which drives the water cycle, heats the water in the oceans, which evaporates into the
air as water vapor. Rising air currents carry the vapor to the upper layers of the atmosphere,
where the lower temperature causes the water vapor to condense and form clouds. Air currents
move clouds over the globe, cloud particles collide, grow and fall as precipitation. Part of this
precipitation falls as snow, and accumulates in ice caps and glaciers, in these glaciers there is
a large part of the world's fresh water, more than 60%, which can store frozen water for millions
of years. years. In warmer climates, the accumulated snow melts and melts when spring
arrives. Melted snow runs over the ground surface as meltwater and sometimes causes
flooding. Most of the precipitation falls into the oceans or onto land, where, due to gravity, it
runs over the surface as surface runoff.

A part of this runoff reaches the rivers in the depressions of the land; in the current of the rivers
the water is transported back to the oceans. Runoff water and groundwater that bubble up to
the surface accumulate and store in freshwater lakes. Not all rainwater flows into rivers, much
of it is absorbed by the ground as infiltration. Some of this water remains in the upper layers of
the soil, returning to bodies of water and the oceans as groundwater discharge. Other
groundwater finds openings in the earth's surface and emerges as freshwater springs. Shallow
groundwater is taken up by plant roots and transpired through the surface of leaves, returning
to the atmosphere. Another part of the infiltrated water reaches the deeper layers of the soil
and recharges the aquifers, which store large amounts of fresh water for long periods of time.
Over time, this water continues to move, some of it will return to the oceans, where the water
cycle "closes"...and starts again.

This is how the water cycle “naturally works” but do humans influence the water cycle? the
answer is yes, humans have a big influence on what happens with the water of the world,
Climate change is causing numerous changes to the water cycle. Sea levels are rising in
some areas and dropping in others, glaciers are retreating and disappearing affecting
rivers, droughts are happening more frequently in some regions and floods in other areas,
coastlines are changing and some islands are disappearing, the polar ice cap is melting,
and so forth.

The use of pesticides, herbicides, and excess nitrogen for farming runs off into rivers and
streams and pollutes groundwater. Deforestation, whether for timber or to clear land for
agriculture or development, increases runoff. Certain emissions from industry cause acid
rain. Also, on the other hand, deforestation means that there are fewer plants that draw
water from the ground water discharge, and the excessive use of pesticides generates
water pollution that also affects fresh water reserves.
 Part 2

The largest source of water in my area is the Otun River. Colombia has an important part of the
fresh water on the planet and this leads us to think of the responsibility we have in caring for
the water in our country, which in turn leads us to talk about hydrographic basins and their
usefulness for planning a territory in which there are certain factors social as public and private
institutions, civil society organizations, academia and environmental authorities such as the
CARDER; and biophysical components such as water, air, flora and fauna

It is important to know that Colombia is one of the richest countries in water, since our rivers
produce 50,000 cubic meters per person annually, compared to those of Germany that reach
up to 2,000, however, the figure of water waste is worrying. in distribution networks in the
country, which is 48%.

Pereira's water is drinkable but there is evidence of Hepatitis A and therefore it is

recommended to boil the water before consuming it; We are waiting for the results of the
National Institute of Health on the new water quality tests. There are changes in land use that
generate discharges from commercial establishments that end up in the Otún River and
therefore the suspension of these permits must be made effective, the Pereira water
management company is already in these procedures.

In the water of my area there are some problems such as the presence of hepatitis A, in some
villages there is not enough drinking water and some people have to make long trips to find
water with which they can bathe or cook. On the other hand, there are also many constructions
that are taking waste and remaining materials to the rivers, which generates great pollution and
causes the quantity and quality of water to drop.

In Pereira and in Colombia in general, many changes are being made to ensure that the quality
of the water improves, we have a large number of paramos and we have the largest source of
fresh water in the world, the Amazon River, therefore, although we have a lot of water we also
have a great responsibility towards the environment. In my personal case, me and my family try
to take good care of water and the environment in general, which is why we have participated
in multiple campaigns and created many projects to help conserve these resources. For
example, about 3 years ago the government of my city and I created a campaign called
“Pereira Lo veo bien”, which was a campaign in which we invited many children from many
areas to raise awareness, “Sofía Bohórquez affirms that, if we respect each other traffic signals,
there are no parties with high volume to let the neighbors sleep, dog feces are collected in the
parks, water resources are cared for and pollution is avoided, we can live in harmony and
create awareness of respect for the city.

This girl is the leading promoter of 'Pereira Lo veo bien”, a campaign with which the Pereira
Improvement Society (SMP), the Pereira Chamber of Commerce and the Pereira Mayor's
Office seek to rescue citizen culture in the capital of Risaralda .
The campaign was presented yesterday through the forum 'Citizenship models and new pacts
for legality, coexistence and pluralism', which was attended, among other guests, by the former
mayor of Bogotá Antanas Mockus, the vice president of the Republic, Óscar Naranjo , and the
consultant on civic culture issues Rocío Londoño Botero.

This was an article that appeared in a newspaper in my country, in which it was told how the
campaign worked and why these changes were necessary, after this campaign and other that
was called “cruce al tigre” wich I also lead I won a human rights award from the Italian police,
Carabinieri, in which I was recognized for my social and environmental work.
On the other hand, my parents also created, together with an artist named Viviana Angel, a
project in which they went to the rivers of my city and collected the large polluting waste that
remained from the constructions, for example toilets that were damaged before placing them in
the construction, sinks, glass or stained glass and with these things they taught people from
low-income neighborhoods to remodel their houses with these items making mosaics, and thus
the rivers were decontaminated and these neighborhoods also had new parks remodeled with
art and They had art in their houses. In these projects there was a great participation of the
community and the most important thing was that awareness of the need for these changes
was created.

Of course we still have many changes to make and many improvements, but I am proud to see
everything that has been achieved in my country and the awareness that people have been
acquiring.

Sources
https://aguasyaguas.com.co/viva_la_cuenca/images/conocela/2_CartillaPOMCA.pdf

https://risaraldahoy.com/el-agua-de-pereira-es-potable-y-de-alta-calidad-pero-hay-evidencia-de
-hepatitis-a/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CEl%20agua%20de%20Pereira%20es,Diana%20Milena%20
Casta%C3%B1eda%20Secretaria%20de

https://fundacioncompartir.org/noticias/colombia-uno-de-paises-mas-ricos-agua

https://www.eltiempo.com/colombia/otras-ciudades/campana-de-cultura-ciudadana-144654

https://www.destinocafe.com/?p=1314
 Water conservation method 1

One of the problems that I was able to identify in my house is that we use the
washing machine to wash clothes every day, when most of the time it does not fill
up, this generates a large waste of water that is unnecessary.

What we are going to start implementing in my house is that we are going to start
washing clothes every 4 days, since we are only 3 people in my house and I
calculate that the washing machine will be full by that day.

Our goal with this method is to reduce the amount of water consumption of the
month by reducing the times a week we use the washing machine, We will
measure the effectiveness of the conservation method by comparing the water
bill with the water bill of the month before and we will look if the water
consumption was reduced

Water conservation method 2

The second problem that I identify is that when me and my family are out of the
house we drink a lot of water and we never take thermos with us so we buy a lot
of plastic bottles of water and with these we are contributing to the water
pollution, and this is a big problematic.

What we are going to do is to start caring thermos with us so that we can reduce
the use of single-use plastics and therefore reduce the water pollution, when we
are out of our houses and we run out of water of our thermos we will only buy
water bottles that are of glass like voss water so we can reuse them.

Our goal with this is to reduce the use of plastics that can contaminate the rivers
or other water sources, to measure this we will do a chart were we will follow up
our plastic waste through the month, and to make this more creative and
encourage my family to do it we will have some starting points like 100 and
everytime we buy a plastic bottle we lose points, the person that at the end of the
month have more points will win a price like a cinema ticket or something like
that.
 Water conservation method 3

The third problem I noticed is the amount of water we use to water the plants. We
put water on the plants almost every day and since there are many plants in my
house, this generates a large waste of water.

What we are going to do to solve this problem is to start collecting the water of
the rain with buckets and as in my city it rains a lot we should have enough water
to water the plants, also we are going to start putting one bucket around us when
we shower so we can use this water to water the plants too.

Our goal with this is to reduce the amount of water we use watering the plants,
and therefore also using this natural resource that is bring to us by the rain, we
will measure the results comparing the water bill of these month with the ones of
the last months when we were not doing this.