Groundwater might seem like magic to a youngster.

You may know that groundwater serves many purposes worldwide. Of course, drinking water and domestic uses of water are major components of those uses. The ways of getting at groundwater differ depending on the local underground conditions. Water may be plentiful just 10 feet below the land surface, or a deep well might have to be drilled many hundreds of feet to get at scarcer water filling the cracks between dense rock particles. Pumps are often needed to push water to the land surface.

But this little lad is lucky as his well is located in a place where groundwater is shallow and plentiful. Thus, he, with his parents' help, can just hand-lower the bucket a few feet down and crank the bucket full of water back to the surface. This picture does not show a working well, but wells just like this have served the water needs of people for many centuries and still do today.

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