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Clean, fresh water-appreciated
when it is scarce-is the most
versatile and necessary liquid on earth.
F
RESH
water- we need it
to function, to drink, to
grow food, to bathe in.
Life depends on it.
-
There is no artificial
water, no "synwater."
It
has to
be the real thing.
Seventy-five percent of the sur–
face of our planet is covered with
water . Vast amounts are to be
found underground. So what's the
problem?
The problem is that not all water
is fresh. And what clean, usable
fresh water there is is becoming
scarce for larger and larger seg–
ments of humanity.
Actually, the ear th's water has
been transferred time and time
again from the oceans into the at–
mosphere, onto the land from
where it has flowed back to sea,
there to start the cycle over:
It
is as King Solomon perceived
long ago: "All the rivers run into
the sea, yet the sea is not fu ll; to
the place from which the rivers
come, there they return again"
(Eccl. 1:7,
Revised Authorized
Version).
14
This process-the hydrological
cycle-means that the oceans, the
atmosphere and the sun al! work
together like a gigantic distillery.
The heat of the sun on the oceans
and other bodies of water causes
water to evaporate into the air. The
vapor-laden air eventually dumps
its moisture in the form of dew,
rain, snow or hail.
Sorne falls directly back into the
oceans, sorne falls on land. That
which falls on land becomes
Fresb water is abundant in
tbe Amazon Basin (circular
pboto). Not so, bowever,
in
many otber areas of tbe
world, as depicted in tbe
smaUer pbotos. Left to
rigbt: Debris from
civilization renders ugly a
peaceful pond. An official
runs tests on polluted
water: To victims of
drought
in
Africa, aU
water is precious.
Effluent snakes its way
down a river.