The Most Basic Resource

Water, Water, Everywhere

Water evaporates from land, rivers, lakes, and oceans and becomes invisible gas in atmosphere called water vapor which condenses in atmosphere to form clouds. Then, this vapor becomes a cloud and soon precipitation falls from clouds to Earth. The rainwater runs into bodies of water and snow stays on ground. Water that runs off is called runoff water. Some runoff soaks deep into Earth into porous rock and is called groundwater which is taken up by plants and some of it returned into atmosphere through transpiration. This constant circulation of water is called hydro-logic cycle.

Canada’s Water Resources

Lakes and Wetlands

The majority of Canada’s surface fresh water is in lakes and wetlands. The lakes store water and also release water continuously into the rivers that flow out of them. A lot of the water from the glaciers that melted still are held in the lakes today and only small portion is renewed each year. Also, wetlands are areas of land that saturated with water like swamps, bogs, or marshes

Rivers and Drainage basins

Drainage basin is area drained by river and its tributaries. Areas of higher land called watershed separates drainage basins. The amount of water flows through drainage basin known as discharge rate with can vary greatly depending on annual weather conditions and seasons.

Seasonal changes in discharge rate cause two problems:

o  Flooding during wet season

o  Lack of water during dry season

A possible solution is to build a dam to solve the problems which can store from wet seasons for dry seasons.

Groundwater

Water table is top of the saturated zone which is where the water has already filled every place in the ground below. More reliable than surface water because it fluctuates less with seasons. It doesn’t need treatment as much because filters from soil and rock, but may produce unpleasant taste from the minerals. People must be careful not to take too much groundwater than nature can replace.

Water Uses

Two uses for water are in-stream and Withdrawal. In-stream occurs when water is used without removing from lakes or rivers. Withdrawal use removes water from water body which include agriculture, mining, manufacturing, etc. Withdrawal usually returns less water than they consumed in the first place.

Future Canadian Needs

You could make more water from stopping pollution of lakes and rivers so water from these sources are usable, protect wetlands, help divert water from rivers in northern Canada to consumers in southern Canada and US and conserve and manage water in sustainable manner.

Water Issues

Pollution

The main three types of water pollution are physical, biological, and chemical. The least harmful and most obvious is physical (floating garbage) which we can easily see and clean up. Biological contamination refers to bacteria and viruses from different sources and some sewage put into the water isn’t treated properly. The most dangerous, however, is from chemicals in lakes and rivers which are colorless, odorless, and tasteless and deadly. Two main sources of chemical pollution are pesticides and herbicides that are washed from fields into the food chain. Some industries even dump toxic chemicals into water supplies and the Great Lakes have many high concentrated areas of these poisonous chemicals. Two problems to getting rid of toxic chemicals are: we don’t know how to stop dangerous chemicals from getting into water, and most purification plants treat only biological pollution.

Groundwater can get contaminated from gasoline leaks from storage tanks, toxic leaks from landfill sites, and leaks of industrial chemicals from manufacturing sites which can be spread throughout groundwater and it’s almost impossible to get them out.

Loss of Wetlands

Storage for flood-waters and helps filter out pollutants. Wetlands are good for sites for scientific studies but now housing in Canada has replaced original wetlands.

Sustainable Development

We waste a lot of water because we have so much of it and it is relatively inexpensive for us. We must find ways to sustain water for future generations such as increasing cost of water.

Thanks for reading, may you contribute to conserve water even if you are not Canadian; it would make a huge difference if you did.