Water is the most common mineral on Earth and makes up the hydrosphere. It is essential for biological life, comprising 80% of living matter on average. Water also plays a critical role in human activity, with global annual water usage totaling 250 cubic meters per person. As human needs for water continue to grow, protecting this vital resource through treatment and limiting pollution discharge will be imperative.
Water is the most common mineral on Earth and makes up the hydrosphere. It is essential for biological life, comprising 80% of living matter on average. Water also plays a critical role in human activity, with global annual water usage totaling 250 cubic meters per person. As human needs for water continue to grow, protecting this vital resource through treatment and limiting pollution discharge will be imperative.
Water is the most common mineral on Earth and makes up the hydrosphere. It is essential for biological life, comprising 80% of living matter on average. Water also plays a critical role in human activity, with global annual water usage totaling 250 cubic meters per person. As human needs for water continue to grow, protecting this vital resource through treatment and limiting pollution discharge will be imperative.
Water is the most common mineral on Earth and makes up the hydrosphere. It is essential for biological life, comprising 80% of living matter on average. Water also plays a critical role in human activity, with global annual water usage totaling 250 cubic meters per person. As human needs for water continue to grow, protecting this vital resource through treatment and limiting pollution discharge will be imperative.
INTRODUCTION Throughout the universe there is one molecule which man seeks above all others for its discovery in the atmosphere of some distant planet would immediately unleash mankind's wildest dreams. This molecule may be easily depicted as a simple triangle distinguished by an interatomic angle of 105 owing to the electronegativity of two of its poles. If its bonds were exclusively covalent, this angle would be 90. The water molecule has an electric moment that is reflected in its physical and electric properties.
The formula for water can thus be very
simply written as H2 O. Water - the very word brings to mind an image born of recent space voyages the picture of a blue planet: Earth. Water is the most common mineral on the earth's surface. It makes up the hydrosphere. Its volume is estimated at 1370 million cubic kilometers; the volume of fresh water distributed between rivers, lakes and ground water is considered to be between 500,000 and one million cubic kilometers. The volume of
Chap. l; Water, a fundamental element
polar ice caps represents 25 million cubic
kilometers of fresh water. Finally, there are 50,000 cubic kilometers of water in the atmosphere in the form of vapour and clouds. Annual evaporation is estimated at 500,000 cubic kilometers and precipitation on the continents is calculated at 120,000 cubic kilometers yearly. Above all, however, water is a synonym for biological life. It is the major component of living matter. On the average, it accounts for 80% of its composition. In higher animals, the percentage of water is between 60 and 70%. In marine organisms, such as jellyfish and certain algae, the proportions reach extremes of 98%. On the other hand, bacteria in a state of sporulation or suspended animation, which
makes them resistant, experience a drop in
water content to 50%. A principal element in the mineral and biological worlds, water is also the preeminent vector of life and human activity. At present, the world's use of water, counting domestic, industrial and agricultural, totals an impressive 250 m3 per person per year. Moreover, disparities are enormous: from 100 m3 for developing countries to 1500 m3 for the United States. Man's need for water is, thus, certain to grow. This makes it imperative that water be protected. It must be treated, whether to produce water for general consumption, or for specific industrial uses or to limit the discharge of pollution into the environment.
