Water
Sources

Americans turn the handle on their tap and presto! Water comes out. That’s the way it works, right? Wrong. In reality, a complex and remarkably efficient system brings domestic water into our homes. Just as complex is the system that takes water away from our house, removes waste from it, and returns it to the environment. To understand this, homeowners should keep in mind the basic water equation: 97 percent of the world’s water is salt water; 2 percent is ice; less than 1 percent is fresh, potentially drinkable water. Of that less than 1 percent, 98 percent is underground, where it is not necessarily accessible. Getting at it and getting rid of it when it’s dirty make up the two sides of a complex — and miraculous — feat of modern engineering. For homeowners living in the U.S., the answer to where does water come from is easy. The water mains in our streets are made up of lateral supply lines that branch right into their homes. Many other countries consider it real progress just to get water to a communal tap at the end of the street — and many of them have to boil it before ever thinking of drinking it. A water engineer’s job is to tap nature’s water resources and create a usable municipal water supply. In most countries, engineers have created a storage system composed of dams and tanks, which allow the seasonal water collection to be used as a year-round supply. In developed countries such as the U.S., filtration plants also treat water to make it pure for drinking. Canals, pipes and pumps move water to our homes.