How We Use Water

As the label in the grocery store says, " Farm Raised Tilapia Fillets " are for sale! Yes, aquaculture and fish farming are big businesses nowadays, and with the rising population of the world, more and more seafood will be grown in the future in aquatic farms.

Throughout the world, irrigation (water for agriculture, or growing crops) is probably the most important use of water (except for drinking and washing a smelly dog, perhaps). Irrigation water is essential for keeping fruits, vegetables, and grains growing to feed the world's population, and this has been a constant for thousands of years.

Livestock water use is water associated with livestock watering, feedlots, dairy operations, and other on-farm needs.

It is likely the water you use at home is brought to you by a public water-supply system. These are agencies, such as your local county government, that find and get the water that is delivered to not only your home, but to many businesses and industries. Most of the population of the United States gets their water this way.

Domestic water use is water used for indoor and outdoor household purposes— all the things you do at home: drinking, preparing food, bathing, washing clothes and dishes, brushing your teeth, watering the garden, and even washing the dog. At the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), domestic water use refers to the amount of water that is "self-supplied", or water withdrawn directly by users, such as from...

The industries that produce metals, wood and paper products, chemicals, gasoline and oils, and those invaluable grabber utensils you use to get your ring (which also needed water to manufacture) out of the garbage disposal are major users of water.

Water temperature plays an important role in almost all USGS water science. Water temperature exerts a major influence on biological activity and growth, has an effect on water chemistry, can influence water quantity measurements, and governs the kinds of organisms that live in water bodies.

Read on about our fictional tale of how YOU establish a new town in the desert and the role water plays in all aspects of the process.

So just how do we get electricity from water? Actually, hydroelectric and coal-fired power plants produce electricity in a similar way. In both cases a power source is used to turn a propeller-like piece called a turbine.

Nothing is perfect on Earth, and that includes the production of electricity using flowing water. Hydroelectric-production facilities are indeed not perfect (a dam costs a lot to build and also can have negative effects on the environment and local ecology), but there are a number of advantages of hydroelectric-power production as opposed to fossil-fuel power production.

The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River in China is the world's biggest hydroelectric facility.

An aqueduct has been and continues to be an imporant way to get water from one place to another. Be it 2,000 years ago in ancient Rome, Italy or today in California, aqueducts were and are essential to get water from a place where it exists in ample supply to where it is scarce. Find out how these "ancient marvels" work.