World Water Day

March 22nd is World Water Day. The Peace Corps has access to water testing kits and since I used to test water every two hours when I worked at a pool for 7 years I figured this was right up my ally. I got water samples from three local sources; the Provadiya River (taken from the river in the town of Provadiya by Huelo), the Black Sea and this little pond down the hill from my village that people go fishing at. The kit tests Turbidity (aka cloudiness), Dissolved Oxygen, Temperature and pH Level.

The "lake" and a beer bottle tree along the road to get there

I registered the "lake" on the World Water Monitoring Day website so that other groups can see our results and we can look at theirs. We can add more sites in the future if the kids want to work more on this, or we can keep monitoring the pond and see if the levels improve with trash clean ups and other events/projects we do during the summer.

I figured the actual water testing, with chemicals and all, was not a good idea for the little kids so for the younger grades I took a coloring book on the water cycle I found for free online from the U.S. Geological Survey and translated it into Bulgarian. The kids in 1-4 grades colored it in a competition. The winning group gets their 8 page coloring book posted on the wall in the hallway for everyone to see, and hopefully read as well.

Coloring Book and Water Testing Kit

Team Work on Team A grades 3&4

Team Work on Team A grades 3&4

First Grade Reading Out-loud

2nd grade had some materials already that were about water

2nd Grade Teams A&B

We determined from the three water samples that the Provadiya River was the cleanest, it was the clearest water and had a pH of 7. The Dissolved Oxygen test must be done right away since the levels decrease if the water is stored for a long period of time, so we were only able to do that test on the "lake". Therefore, I can not be held accountable if the cleanliness of the Provadiya water doesn't necessarily support aquatic life since the presence of oxygen is slightly important for that. Either way the kids enjoyed shaking test tubes and stuff so it was a success.

"lake" pH Test

Provadiya River pH Test

Black  Sea pH Test

Determining Results