Imagine what it would be like not having water to drink, wash your hands, shower, flush the toilet, or do laundry? Without water, hospitals would close. Firefighters would not be able to put out fires, farmers would not have the resources to water their crops and disease would spread.

Imagine a Day Without Water is a U.S national education campaign that brings together diverse stakeholders to highlight how water is essential, invaluable, and in need of investment. This year, the day of action is taking place on October 21, 2020.

This year, the global community faced an enormous public health crisis from the coronavirus pandemic. This crisis demonstrated the critical role that water and wastewater systems play in their communities, protecting public health, safeguarding the environment, and making a healthy economy possible.

Today, all people in the USA Imagine a Day Without Water. It’s a day to pause and notice the way that water systems impact our lives and communities, and commit to ensuring a sustainable water future for generations to come.

Imagine a Day Without Water 2020, the sixth annual day to raise awareness and educate the public about why water as an essential, invaluable resource will include events, resolutions, student contests, social media engagement, and more, all across the USA.

Essay contest under the topic of “Imagine a Day Without Water” among school children is one of the various events for the day. Here we  

Pennsylvania American Water partnered with Washington Heights Elementary School to hold an essay contest for Imagine a Day Without Water. Three winners were selected and were each awarded a reusable water bottle and a gift card to Barnes & Noble.

Here are three winning essays of a contest held among Hooper Elementary School students during the “Imagine a Day Without Water” event in 2017. About 120 fourth-graders participated in the contest and three students, Chase S, Molly X and Samantha C, were selected. We hope how the little ones imagine a day without water will give you something to think about.

Hooper Elementary School essay contest winners Chase S., Molly H., Samantha C. with the school’s supervisor of instruction, Christine Manna and teacher Doug Hynoski.

Imagine waking up in a world with no water!

One Monday morning I woke up. Then I fumbled out of bed to brush my teeth. When I brushed my teeth, I noticed there was no water coming out of the sink. “Well that’s strange, maybe someone is messing with the plumbing,” I wondered. “Come on Sam! We will be late for school!” my little brother exclaimed. I rushed downstairs and packed my lunch.

Then we hopped on the bus to go to school. “Remember, we will be going to the beach,” he explained. “I thought it was going to rain today,” I said. “Nope,” Dad said. “It isn’t cloudy today,” he explained. Then a few minutes later we were at school. That’s when I noticed the flowers at the entrance were gloomy. “Well, maybe they didn’t water them.” I wondered. Then at science, we were learning about photosynthesis.

When we went outside to water the plants at the entrance, our water cans were empty! We tried to find water, but we couldn’t find any. We just went to lunch so we wouldn’t be late. When I opened my water bottle, it was completely empty. “Okay, something is wrong right now,” I exclaimed.

After school, I explained everything to my older sister, Sofia. “Can we go to the beach now?” I asked.

“Okay. Fine. Get ready or else we won’t,” she said. When we arrived at the beach we set up near the ocean. That’s when I said, “Wait, there is no ocean!” That’s when we went home. When I ate dinner I had no water to drink. “Sam, it’s your turn to wash the dishes,” Sofia said. When I tried there was still no water coming out of the sink. “How am I supposed to wash the dishes now?” I asked. “Just do it tomorrow then,” she said. I didn’t even bother to brush my teeth, and I went to sleep.

When I woke up I saw my brother brush his teeth. “How are you doing that? I thought there was no water.” I said. “That must have been a crazy dream you had,” he said. “Wait, that was just a dream?” I asked. “Yes, now let’s eat breakfast and go to school!” he exclaimed.

—Essay by Samantha C., a fourth-grader at Hooper Elementary School

Can you imagine waking up in the morning with no water in the summertime? There wouldn’t be any water to brush your teeth, take a shower, or drink. One morning I woke up to find that there was no water. I went to go into the bathroom to brush my teeth. I put the toothbrush under the sink, and it made a crackling noise. It was as dry as the desert. “Mom!” I yelled. “Why do we not have any water?’’ “I don’t know. I will call Suez and ask why the water isn’t working, so just don’t brush your teeth without water.”

I ate breakfast, got my backpack, and went in the car to drive to school. I looked at the grass, and it was as dry as a pile of sand at the beach. As soon as I got in my classroom, I saw that my teacher had written on the whiteboard, “Sorry, but there will be no hot lunches served at lunch today, and we can’t fill up our water bottles.” In class, we were all very devastated about our water problems. We couldn’t believe what was happening. We all knew that we had a gym that day, and we would all be sweaty and thirsty if we did not have any water to drink.

When we went to the gym the teacher told us that we could go back to our classroom. We were not having gym class today so that we didn’t get all hot and sweaty. Then we walked back to class and started to do some mathematics. We were all really thirsty because we had no water to drink. After math, we went to lunch, and they gave us cold subs. We were all mad because it was Taco Tuesday. After we ate we went out for recess and sat on the bench because we didn’t want to get more sweaty than we were. We were all really dehydrated and needed water. The water cooler also ran out of water because we drank all of it the day before. After recess, we were all walking past the teacher’s lounge, which was all pink and purple just like my room. Then we saw our teacher Mr. Agua drinking water. “Hey! Share with us, we all are so dehydrated. We haven’t had water in hours!” He yelled, “No!” My whole class ran into the teacher’s lounge anyway and took a drink of water. “Go back to the class and do questions one through five in your science book,” he roared at us like a dinosaur.

Finally, it was time to go home, and Mr. Agua told us to get our backpacks, do math pages 1 and 2 in our math journals, and do our rounding sheets. We were all still very dehydrated. Ring ring! That was the bell. I was so happy to go home and try to turn on the water. I went to the cafeteria, where everyone looked as hot as panting dogs. As soon as I got in the car I said, “Drive, just drive home.” I ran into the house as fast as I could and turned on the water. It worked! “Mom!” I took a drink of water, gave the pets water, and ran to take a shower. That was the worst day ever with no water.

—Essay by Molly H., a fourth-grader at Hooper Elementary School

Imagine waking up and there is no water. One day that’s exactly what happened to me. I woke up, and there was no water to brush my teeth, take a shower, or even have a drink. I ran across the street to my friend Dan’s house to see if he had water. Dan opened the door and said, “Jason do you have any water?” I said, “That’s what I was going to ask you!”

The next day, there was still no water. Dan and I decided to have a sleepover that night to figure out a way to get water. Dan came over to my house at 6:00 PM. When he showed up, he had a big bag full of stuff. I said, “What do you have in that bag, are you staying for a day or a week?” “I brought my science book, a notebook, and my sketch book so we can plan it out,” said Dan.

We went up in my room and started looking through the science books. We were almost out of books when suddenly I exclaimed, “I found a solution!” “Look Dan,” I said, “What if we make a rain barrel?” Dan said, “What’s a rain barrel? Let me see that book! Good idea, but we better make it fast before it starts to rain.”

We soon started looking for something to use as a rain barrel. My dad has a lot of buckets so we decided to use them. We put them outside under the downspout so when rain falls in the gutter it will go down the spout and into the bucket. Once we collect the rainwater, we can take the top layer and boil it for cooking and drinking. Finally, two days later it rained. We boiled it to drink and eat. The first thing we made to eat was mac and cheese. A few days later, the water was back. Dan and I liked using the rain barrel, so we kept collecting rain on rainy days.

—Essay by Chase S., a fourth-grader at Hooper Elementary School

Source:

"Imagine a Day Without Water" campaign official website

US Water Alliance official website

https://imagineadaywithoutwater.org/about

http://uswateralliance.org/resources/blog/students-reflect-imagine-day-without-water

Translated and contributed by the MCA-Mongolia Communications team.