Importance Of Water

Water gives Earth a unique distinctiveness from all other discovered celestial bodies. Covering 70% of the Earth, water can be regarded as the basic ingredient that makes life possible on this planet. Apart from that, it constitutes 60% of an adult male’s body and 55% of a female’s body. Water is the general name given to the liquid state of H₂O, i.e. its molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms. Water can take three forms - liquid, solid and gas, depending on the environmental conditions. Pure drinking water is without colour, taste or odor. 97% of the water on Earth is salty water, which is hazardous for human consumption. Only 2% of the water on Earth is in the solid state as glacier ice in the north and south poles, but these fresh water sources are too far away to be of any use. As such, we are left with only 1% of fresh water, which is used for our varied needs.
 

Water is absolutely necessary for all living things. Right from its nominal use in day to day living, such as taking bath, drinking water or making food to its use in industries and farming, water is one of the crucial constituents that have made it convenient to live life. However, because of its omnipresent nature, we often take water for granted and lend our hand to its wastage. But what we have forgotten is that, the sources of fresh drinking water are decreasing with time. Although there seems to be no shortage of water on the face of it, did you know that about 2.8 billion people or 40% of the Earth’s population are already reeling under problems of water security? Do you know that running the tap while brushing your teeth can waste 4 gallons of water every day? So much so for the life-saver! If you put aside the daily use and look at the bigger picture, the importance of water would be absolutely astonishing!

 

The amount of water bodies in a particular region definitely affects its weather patterns. An area with a large water bodies would have a milder temperature than an area with a greater share of land mass near it. Humidity is also a water dependent factor. Humidity is nothing, but the amount of water present in air. It affects the temperature of the air close to a body of water, and if there is any difference in temperature of air in one place, it creates a difference in pressure which leads to atmospheric movement. 

Do you know that the place that you are sitting on, right now, could have been a place submerged in water, in the beginning of the Earth’s transformation? The movement of water on the Earth’s surface was responsible for the shape it took. Due to gravitational force, water flows downhill, thus forming streams. As such, when the snow melted, it kept flowing towards the lower spots on the surface of the Earth, thus forming the oceans. Earth has no external source of water. However, there is a natural system of using the available source of water over and over again, which helps in fulfilling the water requirement. Nonetheless, the expansion of industries, increasing pollution and wastage of water is causing a major disruption in the smooth functioning of this cycle.

Water provides Earth the gift to support life. Earth needs water to sustain its life and we need water to sustain ours. While 70% of Earth is water, our body also contains greater percentage of water. Water adds up to 50 to 90 percent of the weight of a living thing. Absence of water causes the body to dehydrate and thus, disrupts proper functioning. Did you know that more people die due to dehydration than starvation? Water has numerous functions in our body. Some of them are that it regulates our body temperature, prevents dryness of our skin, forms saliva, increases flexibility of the joints and so on.