DRAINAGE

2 What are drains? A drain is the place where all our waste water goes. It also collects rain water.

Drainage How much water do we use? 150 litres a day!

Drainage How you use water

5 What happens if drains are damaged or full? These are instances of flooding.

6 Drains need to be replaced, or made bigger WHY? Growth Climate Change Deterioration Creep

Climate Change 7 Climate Change......What is going to happen? Winters are getting wetter.

Growth – More people building houses 8

9 Growth More PeopleMore Water Used Sewers are fuller!

Creep – People paving over gardens 10

What is ‘Creep’? 11 Drain Paving

litres a day! How much water does a tree use? Most people just drink 2 litres a day!

Challenge 1 13 Can you drink as much water as a tree? An average tree takes up 264 litres a day from the ground though it’s roots. That’s 180ml a minute! Trees roots are usually as long as the tree is tall, so a tree 5 meters tall collects water 5 meters away from the trunk. This is the same as a person drinking 750ml of water through a straw in 10 seconds. How much water can you drink though a straw in 10 seconds?

14 Drain Transpiration The water that trees breath out. 8 trees = 2120litres Creep

Challenge 2 15 How else do trees help drainage? The roots from trees make the soil more porous. This means it can soak more water. Which is more porous, a sponge or a stone? Tip 500ml of water over both items, and measure how much water you collect underneath. The more porous the material, the less water you should collect.

Challenge 3 16 How else do trees help drainage? Can you make a material more porous? Take a piece of clay and pour water over it. Collect and measure the water. Experiment with ways of making the clay more porous and repeat the test.

17 How much creep is happening? Since 1945, an area of around 139 square Kilometres has been paved over in cities such as Cardiff. That’s the same as 310 times the size of the the Millennium Stadium! Millennium Stadium

Deterioration 18 Clean Sewer. Sewer filled with fat, oil and grease. Waste from people can affect the sewers.

Deterioration 19 This is a sewer tunnelling machine. How easy is it to put them in?

Drainage 20 What can we do? Collect ‘Grey Water’

Drainage 21 What can we do? Plant some plants Before After – The plants here are highly water absorbent.

Drainage 22 What can we do? Plant some plants Before After – Also help calm traffic, as well as absorbing water.

Drainage 23 What can we do? Make a rain water garden Again, highly absorbent plants to take up as much water as possible, and reduce the amount entering drains.

Reduce how much water you put down the drain! 24 AND FINALLY, Be more water efficient!