Funday Times

Asia and the Pacific Regional Art and Writing Competition
The United Nations Environment Programme, Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific has announced that the essay entry submitted by Miss Lakshika

Chamini Weragoda, a year 7 student of Pushpadana Girls' College, Kandy, has won the first prize. She received her award on World Environment Day, 5th June 2003 at the United Nations Conference Centre, Bangkok, Thailand.

The travel to Bangkok for her and her chaperon has been made possiblthrough the kind sponsorship of Bayer, the partner of the United Nations Environment Programme for youth education in Asia/Pacific.

AWARD WINNING ESSAY
"Water-two billion people are dying for it"
"Water-our life giver"-means we cannot live without water. Only three percent of the water in our planet is fresh water for consumption, the rest is salt water. We must use water very carefully without wasting and polluting it because water is extensively used in our daily lives. Agriculture and industry as well as other living things like plants and animals require water.

At present, we see that man is wasting water by opening taps for a long time, when brushing teeth or when talking with each other while the bucket overflows with water. On the roads we see leaking taps and broken pipes not repaired for many weeks.

In history we are told that ancient Kings of Sri Lanka built large tanks or reservoirs to manage water. They built large tanks to collect water during the rainy season. From these tanks water was sent through canals to irrigate the fields. Further, deep wells were dug to conserve ground water resources.

Harvesting rainwater is another new method of water management. Domestic rainwater harvesting where rainfall is collected from roof run offs into storage tanks after filtering is becoming very popular in many countries. We have to conserve water because without water there will be no life on earth.

Let us follow the words of King Parakramabahu, an ancient King of Sri Lanka. " Let not a drop of water that falls from the skies flow to the sea without it being used for the benefit of man".

Lakshika Weragoda
Pushpadana Girls' College,Kandy

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