Water in South Africa

Question 1

What is water used for?

Answer 1

• Bathing
• brushing teeth
• flushing
• drinking
• washing
• farming
• mining
• gardening
• recreation

Question 2

How is water used in farming?

Answer 2

To irrigate the crops
Feed animals
Keep machines running and cool

Question 3

How is water used in factories?

Answer 3

Part on the process of making different things.
To cool and clean machines
For air conditioners

Question 4

How is water used recreationally?

Answer 4

• swimming
• skiing
• surfing
• diving
• body boarding

Question 5

How is water used to make electricity?

Answer 5

It is used to turn turbines
Either by
* boiling the water to make steam and then using the steam to turn the turbines
* falling water from dams

Question 6

How is water used in mines?

Answer 6

To keep the mines cool
To separate the ores (gold etc from others)

Question 7

What is fresh water?

Answer 7

It is not salty

Question 8

What is salt water ?

Answer 8

Water with salt in it.
(people cannot drink it. makes up 97% of the earths water)

Question 9

What is evaporation?

Answer 9

When liquid is heated and changes to steam

Question 10

What are resources?

Answer 10

Useful things people need and use in their lives

Question 11

How is fresh water obtained from salt water?

Answer 11

By the process of evaporation

Question 12

Where do you find fresh water?

Answer 12

Rivers
Streams
Groundwater
Precipitation
Wetlands

Question 13

What is groundwater and how is it replenished?

Answer 13

Water located below the ground surfaces in spaces between soil and rock formations.
It is replenished is from the surface
(Can seep to the surface springs, oasis, wetlands)

Question 14

What is precipitation?

Answer 14

Any state of water that falls from the sky

Question 15

Give examples of precipitation?

Answer 15

Rain
Sleet
Snow
Hail

Question 16

Why is precipitation important?

Answer 16

It is our master source of fresh water (it fills rivers, lakes, ponds and streams)

Question 17

How can water spread disease?

Answer 17

Dirty water can spread disease

Question 18

How can we look after our water?

Answer 18

Do not waste it
Do not make it dirty

Question 19

Describe the natural water cycle

Answer 19

1. Sun heats water in ocean/sea and turns the water into water vapour (not salty; salt stays in the sea)
2. When air cools, water vapour turns to water again (condensation) and forms clouds
3. Then precipitates to earth (rain, snow etc)
4. Rainwater collects into channels to make streams (some water soaks into the ground and collects in cracks & caves)
5. Streams join together to make rivers
6. Rivers flow downhill to the sea

(Sometimes, rivers first make a lake; some places next to rivers/lakes stay wet - called wetlands)

Question 20

Why do people store water?

Answer 20

To use it in the future

Question 21

What kind of water do people store?

Answer 21

Fresh water, often rainwater, some times ground water

Question 22

How do farmers store water? Why?

Answer 22

Dams.
So that they always have water for their crops and animals.

Question 23

List different ways that people store water

Answer 23

Jo Jo tanks
Dams
Bottles
Geysers
Hells
Kettle
Cup
Pots

Question 24

How do people get their water?

Answer 24

From wells and boreholes (underground),
Taps,
Trucks with water containers,
Rainwater (Jo Jo tanks)

Question 25

What is deeper, a borehole or a well?

Answer 25

Boreholes

Question 26

What is a well?

Answer 26

A hole in the ground to reach the ground water, people usually get the water out with a bucket.

Question 27

How do people reach ground water?

Answer 27

By digging or drilling onto the ground (making wells or boreholes)

Question 28

How do people get water if they have no wells or boreholes or running water?

Answer 28

From water trucks (which bring water every few days which people collect using containers to take to their home)

Question 29

Describe the process of water coming to our taps.

Answer 29

• rain
• rivers
• dams (which stores the water)
• treatment center cleans the water
• reservoir stores cleaned water
• pumping stations push water to places where people live
• water reaches taps through underground pipes

Question 30

List 3 personal daily practices that pollute water

Answer 30

• letting soaps and cleaning products from houses and villages wash into into rivers
• burning fuels lets off chemicals into the air and dirt that join the water cycle
• toilets sometimes leak into rivers and dams

Question 31

Why should you not let cleaning products wash into the river?

Answer 31

They contain chemicals that pollute the water and make it unsafe to drink

Question 32

How does burning fuels pollute water?

Answer 32

The burning lets off chemicals and dirt into the air, then the rain washed those chemicals are into soil, rivers and dams

Question 33

Why is it bad if toilets leak into rivers?

Answer 33

Your body waste pollutes the water, especially because it contains harmful bacteria

Question 34

How do factories contribute to water pollution?

Answer 34

There are harmful chemicals in the waste water and the waste flows from drains into rivers and dams

Question 35

How does farming pollute water?

Answer 35

Fertilizers and pesticides used in farming wash into rivers;
Also
There are harmful chemicals in the waste water and the waste flows from drains into rivers and dams

Question 36

Describe waste water and sewage recycling

Answer 36

Dirty water from settlements passes through pipes as sewage.
The sewage is cleaned at a sewage treatment works.
Cleaned sewage is put back into rivers and/ or sea (which is not harmful because it’s been cleaned)