Date: Friday, January 15th 2016

Participants (from 11 countries):

Host: Rick

Co-Host: Johny

Teams

Panel PRO (Team A): Hafsa, Jami, Ayisha, Nousa

Panel CON (Team B): Boboty, Atilla, Mohiuddin, Noorola, Esam

Audience (Team C): Rojhano, Behnam, Johny, Azamu, Seif, Guneyli, Calatha, Hiwa, Ashfaq, Ohnie

Team A summary:

People need good quality water more than air because water is a basic requirement in life.
Good quality water will help people survive in an easier way.
70 % our body is made of water.
Water should be clean and free from bacterial hazards.
Many lives can be saved if clean and safe water is available to more people.
Bad quality water will give a negative impact to our quality of life.
Water is the most important element for our lives and it’s a basic need.
Water is necessary for any living creature to survive.
We can spend days, weeks, months and even years living in a polluted air environment but we can’t survive that long if we drink polluted water.
Managing water is a difficult task but it’s easier than managing air.
Polluted water is more dangerous than polluted air, because the effect will damage our health directly and faster than a polluted air. Therefore, we need to concentrate our efforts in improving water first.
Refining air system/improving air quality is not cheap.
Refining water is easier.

Team B summary:

Both water and air are important for our lives.
Improving air quality is more important because we have alternative sources of water but we don’t have alternative sources for air.
Both are important but our priority should be improving the air quality.
Air pollution is more dangerous than water pollution, because we use air every second of our lives.
People can live without water because we still can get water from other sources but people can’t live without air.
Bad quality air will affect the quality of life in a long term.

Questions segment:

First Question (Hafza Team A)

“People can have alternative sources of water, what about animals and plants?”

Mohiuddin’s Answer:

“Animals and plants are less affected by the water quality than humans.”

Second Question ( Noroola Team B):

“Do you think we use more water than air?”

Hafza’s answer:

“Yes, we use more water than air.”

Audience summary:

Both good water quality and good air quality are important for our life. One question that came up was: why do we have to improve the quality of something? The answer is because it is not good for our body and it will affect our quality of life, so that’s why we have to improving the quality of something.
It is essential to have good quality water thus people think it is important to improve its quality.
We can’t distinguish between the quality of water and the quality of air; because there is no higher priority of one over the other. We need to have good quality of both and keep them in balance.

After the debate finished, the Host gave Ohnie an opportunity to express her ideas, but it didn’t make any difference on the result. Ohnie agreed with team A.

Votes:

Johny voted for Team A.
Behnam voted for Team A.
Azamu voted for Team B.
Ohnie voted for Team A.
Seif voted for Team A.

Team A won this debate. Thanks everyone for participating! Below are the links to listen to this discussion.

Listen Online:

Download:

Water quality vs Air quality | Recording File | January 15th 2016

For people who did not join the live discussion, feel free to contribute the ideas in the comment blanks below.