• potable water: safe to drink; free from pollution, harmful organisms and impurities
• philanthropy: giving time, talent and treasure for the sake of another or for the common good. 

Anticipatory Set

Before the activity, pour a little bit of chocolate syrup in a clear glass of water. This will appear dirty but will be safe to drink. Walk around the room and show the water to the young people. Ask if anyone is interested in drinking the dirty water. After they react to that request, drink it right in front of them and act as if it is delicious. Explain to the class that the water was perfectly safe to drink, it just looked "dirty" because it had chocolate syrup in it.

• Explain that this was an illustration to begin class investigation and dialogue about the issue of many people on earth not having potable water available. Ask if they know what the phrase "potable water" means? Allow time for students to volunteer their ideas, then tell them the definition from the dictionary: Water that is safe to drink. Potable water is free from pollution, harmful organisms and impurities. 
• Share this fact with the students:
  • 1.1 billion people world-wide don't have access to safe drinking water, many of them are children 
• Share with the students Attachment One: Percent of Population with Access to Safe Drinking Water.  On a globe or world map, have students note the locations of these countries. Ask students to draw conclusions about what regions seem to have the least access to safe water and to conjecture about why they think that is.
• If internet access is available, show students the first two world maps, World Life Expectancy Map and Access to Safe Water Map on the Global Education Project website ( http://www.theglobaleducationproject.org/earth/human-conditions.php). Ask students to compare and contrast the two maps. 
• Tell students that they have now looked at data available on the internet about safe drinking water from two organizations: UNICEF, part of the United Nations, which is an inter-governmental organization and The Global Education Project which is a nonprofit organization. Define nonprofit for the students and ask them to give other examples of philanthropic nonprofit organizations in their own community to check for understanding.  Tell the students that these are examples of two of the economic sectors. Ask them to conjecture about what the other two sectors are and help them determine that they are business and individuals (households).  Tell the students that all four sectors can act philanthropically - giving their time, talent and treasure for the common good.
• Ask:  What responsibilities do you think businesses have in assuring that all people in the world have safe drinking water? Why would businesses care? Why should we care that so many people don't have access to safe drinking water? Guide a student discussion around the motivations for corporate responsibility and individual responsibility to be good global citizens. 
• End the lesson by having the students do the activity from the Reflection section, either as a journal entry, or homework to be handed in for assessment purposes.

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Language: Play Jeopardy or other quiz games with these fun water facts:http://water.epa.gov/ learn/kids/drinkingwater/water_trivia_facts.cfm

Read and discuss the following about sewage treatment in developing countries. Is clean water a human right? The following text is from Wikipedia under Sewage Treatment in Developing Countries: “Few reliable figures on the share of the wastewater collected in sewers that is being treated in the world exist. In many developing countries the bulk of domestic and industrial wastewater is discharged without any treatment or after primary treatment only. In Latin America about 15% of collected wastewater passes through treatment plants (with varying levels of actual treatment). In Venezuela, a below average country in South America with respect to wastewater treatment, 97 percent of the country’s sewage is discharged raw into the environment. In a relatively developed Middle Eastern country such as Iran, Tehran’s majority of population has totally untreated sewage injected to the city’s groundwater. In Israel, about 50 percent of agricultural water usage (total use was 1 billion cubic meters in 2008) is provided through reclaimed sewer water. Future plans call for increased use of treated sewer water as well as more desalination plants. Most of sub-Saharan Africa is without wastewater treatment.”

Math: Have youth keep track of the amount of water they use in a day. They can then graph and compare their quantities with others.
Science: Have youth research the quality of the local water and report on a comparison of the local water with the water quality of other states/countries.
 

• UNICEF Reports: Safe Drinking Water http://www.unicef.org/specialsession/about/sgreport-pdf/03_SafeDrinkingWater_D7341Insert_English.pdf

Progress: A Statistical Review Since the World Summit on Children http://www.unicef.org/specialsession/about/sgreport-pdf/sgreport_adapted_stats_eng.pdf 

• The Global Education Project http://www.theglobaleducationproject.org/earth/human-conditions.php