What is SANITATION?
It's the conditions necessary for health, such as providing clean drinking water and the safe disposal of sewage.
What is EVAPORATION?
It's the process in which liquid water turns into vapour, the opposite of condensation.
What is CONDENSATION?
It's the process in which water vapour turns into liquid water, the opposite of evaporation.
What is PRECIPITATION?
It's the process in which liquid water (as rain) or ice particles (as snow or hail) fall to Earth due to gravity.
What is TRANSPIRATION?
It's the movement of water up plants and its subsequent loss as water vapour from their leaves.
What is SURFACE RUN-OFF?
It's the process by which water runs over the ground into rivers.
What is INTERCEPTION?
It's the process by which precipitation is stopped from reaching the ground surface by the presence of trees and other plants.
What is INFILTRATION?
It's the process by which water seeps into the ground.
What is GROUNDWATER FLOW?
It's the process by which infiltrated water flows through rocks.
What is THROUGH FLOW?
It's the process by which infiltrated water flows through the soil.
What is SURFACE WATER?
Water in LAKES, RIVERS and SWAMPS.
What is GROUNDWATER?
Water in the SOIL and in ROCKS under the surface of the ground.
What is an AQUIFER?
It's water stored in porous rocks under the ground.
What do we call water that is safe to drink?
POTABLE.
What is the removal of salt from water called?
DESALINATION.
What is a RESERVOIR?
It's an artificial lake where water can be stored.
What is a SERVICE RESERVOIR?
It's a reservoir where potable water is stored.
What is a WATER TOWER?
It's a type of reservoir where potable water is stored for immediate use.
What is a type of vessel where potable water is stored; forming a type of covered reservoir?
It's called a CISTERN.
What is a WELL?
It's a hole bored or dug into rock to reach the water stored there.
What is an ARTESIAN AQUIFER?
It's an aquifer in which the water is under pressure.
What is DISTILLATION?
It's the purification of a liquid by boiling it until it evaporates, collecting it once it condenses at a lower temperature.
What is the purification of water by pumping it at high pressure through a fine membrane called?
REVERSE OSMOSIS
What is a PHYSICAL WATER SCARCITY?
It's a situation in which there is simply not enough water for human needs.
What is an ECONOMIC WATER SCARCITY?
It's a situation in which there is enough water available but the money does not exist to extract and/or treat enough of it for human needs.
What is SEWAGE?
Waste matte that is carried away in sewers or drains from domestic (or industrial) establishments.
What is a PATHOGEN?
An organism, including bacteria and viruses, that can cause disease.
What is a VECTOR?
An organism that carries a disease producing organism, such as the mosquito, which carries the malarial parasite.
What is a discharge of liquid waste?
EFFLUENT.
What is CHLORINATION?
It's adding chlorine-based substances to water.
What is BIOMAGNIFICATION?
It's the process in which the concentration of a substance in living things becomes higher at progressively higher levels in a food chain or web.
What is BIOACCUMULATION?
It's the build up of a substance in the body of a living thing.
What is DIEBACK?
It's the death of a tree or shrub that starts at the tip of its leaves or roots and spreads towards the centre of the plant, caused by unfavourable environmental conditions or disease.
What is LEACHING?
It's the movement of a soluble chemical or mineral away from soil, usually caused by the action of rainwater.
What is ALGAE?
It's a plant-like, photosynthetic organism that lacks true stems, roots and leaves.
What is an ALGAL BLOOM?
It's a rapid growth of algae in water, caused particularly by a surge of nutrients.
What do we call things that come from living organisms?
ORGANIC.
What is EUTROPHICATION?
It's a sequence events starting with enrichment of water by mineral nutrients or organic matter that leads to a reduction in oxygen levels in the water and the death of fish and other animals.