Tapping Water Sources

Water is vital to humans. It is needed for food preparation, drinking, washing, and irrigation. In addition, massive quantities are used daily in industrial processes. Yet,
it is a limited resource that must be collected and distributed with increasing care. The most important source of water is rain, which may be collected directly in
cisterns and reservoirs or indirectly through a watershed system or well. A watershed is the network of rivulets, streams, and rivers by which entire areas are watered.
Ground water is rain that has trickled through rock layers, forming pools after many years. If it is under pressure, groundwater may bubble to the surface as a spring.
Irrigation canals, reservoirs, wells, and water towers are man-made devices for diverting and collecting water from these natural sources. Because of contamination
concerns, water from reservoirs, wells, and rivers is usually processed in a treatment plant before distribution.
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The Water Table

The water table marks the top of the region underground that is saturated with water. While most precipitation evaporates back to the atmosphere or flows directly into
streams, the rest percolates down through the ground to the water table. In the ground above the water table, a region called the aeration zone, pore spaces are filled with
a mixture of air and water.
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Think about the different ways you use water. You drink water when you are thirsty. You take a bath and wash your
clothes with water. You water the grass or other plants. You swim in water. Water pouring over huge dams may even
make the electricity that lights up your home.

About three-quarters of Earth’s surface is water. Living things are mostly made up of water. Without water, there would
be no life on Earth.

WHAT IS WATER?

Water is a chemical. Chemists say water is a compound, a combination of different materials. Water is a combination of

oxygen and hydrogen atoms. An atom is a tiny bit of matter much too small to see. Water is made of one atom of oxygen
and two atoms of hydrogen. The three atoms make the tiniest possible drop of water, called a molecule.

Water can be a liquid, a solid, or a gas. Liquid water flows. Solid water is ice. Water in the form of a gas is called water
vapor.

WHERE IS WATER FOUND ON EARTH?

Liquid water fills the ocean, lakes, ponds, rivers, and swamps. Water droplets form rain clouds. Liquid water makes beads
of dew on the grass. It seeps down into the ground. It fills underground lakes and streams.

Ice falls as hail or crystals of snow. Ice forms on ponds and frosty windowpanes. Huge sheets of ice make glaciers and
icecaps at the North and South poles.

Water vapor is always present in the air. Water vapor makes clouds in the sky. Water vapor makes fog that hangs close to
the ground. It is the steam that comes out of a teakettle.

WHERE DO WE GET DRINKING WATER?

Not all water is safe to drink. Water in lakes and rivers can be polluted. It can have harmful chemicals or germs that cause
disease. Long ago, many people living in cities got sick or died from drinking dirty water.

Scientists have learned how to clean, or purify, drinking water. They learned that boiling water could kill germs. They
learned that adding certain chemicals could kill germs. Engineers learned how to keep dirty water in sewers, away from
drinking water. Governments passed laws to keep factories from polluting water.

People still get sick from drinking polluted water. Many poor people still do not have pure drinking water.

COULD WE RUN OUT OF WATER?

Nature recycles water all the time. Water in oceans, lakes, and rivers evaporates, or turns into a gas and rises into the air.
The water vapor eventually turns back into a liquid and falls as rain. The water cycle keeps the total amount of water on
Earth the same. But most of this water is salt water in the ocean. People need fresh water for drinking and for growing
food on farms. Ocean water is too salty to drink. It is too salty to use for watering plants.

Some places have more fresh water than others. People who live near big lakes or rivers have more fresh water than
people who live in the desert. Places where a lot of rain falls have more fresh water.

Places that usually have enough fresh water sometimes have a drought. Very little rain falls during a drought. People run
short of water. People everywhere should be careful not to waste water.