Noticing that a local river that had been their "playground" was getting dirtier each year, 11 children in third grade at Kofu Elementary School in Nagano City decided to do something about it.

These students had been swimming and catching small fish in the Sai River since they were in first grade. But the water had grown so murky that they couldn't drink it anymore. They also found pieces of garbage floating downstream, like plastic shopping bags, clothing, and even automobile tires.

The students organized outings to remove the trash, but even after the litter had been cleared they realized it wasn't enough to make the water pure again. They then learned that placing wood charcoal in the river might help. Since they needed a lot of charcoal for this, the students decided to make their own.

The first thing they did was build a kiln next to the school. They received guidance from a local charcoal maker, but the actual work was done by the students. The kiln took eight months to build.

They were already in second grade when they produced the first batch of charcoal. Once the kiln was fired, someone had to keep watch over it around the clock. So the students took turns, with the person on the overnight shift sleeping in the school building. They produced 29 kilograms of charcoal on their first try.

The second time around they produced 57 kilograms, and on the third attempt they made 66 kilograms. After receiving permission from the local government, the students began placing the charcoal in major irrigation channels, replacing it with a new batch every month.

They checked the quality of the water regularly and found that the charcoal made a great difference. The water was much clearer than before.

When they were in third grade they decided to join a local chapter of the Eco Club after learning about a plan to build a landfill near Matsusawa River, which runs near their community.

The kids visited the planned construction site and found it could destroy the local environment. But they knew that unless a way could be found to reduce the volume of garbage people produced, a landfill had to be built somewhere. They therefore joined the Eco Club to step up their recycling efforts while continuing their activities to clean the Sai River.

In November 1997, the students made a report of their activities at a junior environment conference in Nagano--the host city of the 1998 Olympic Winter Games opening on February 7. They were among four elementary schools from Nagano that described their efforts to protect the natural environment at the conference.

Kofu Elementary School participates in the One School, One Country Program, under which a school chooses a country represented at the Olympics to study and root for. The school is supporting athletes from Spain, and last year, a Spanish resident of Japan visited the school four times to deepen children's understanding of the country.

One girl said that she enjoyed the visits very much because she was able to learn the kind of games Spanish children play. "I want to support Spanish athletes so that they'll do their best during the Olympics," she said.


Photos: (From top) Showing off their charcoal; building the kiln; cutting wood for the project; removing the first batch from the kiln (Kofu Elementary School).