Tri-County/City Soil and Water Conservation District

Because water is so important to us, we need to keep it clean; so water quality is an important issue. There are many ways you can help. You can protect the watershed that’s the source of your community’s water. Clean water is achievable if each of us pays attention to our own actions. Day-to-day choices are the key. Pouring leftover paint down a drain may foul a river that supplies water to our faucets. Crankcase oil dripping on a parking lot may wash into a lake where our children swim. Pesticides and soil eroding off a cornfield may contaminate a stream where we fish. The sources of this kind of water pollution are everywhere. Hence the name, "nonpoint source pollution."

What you can do ...

Also, quantity is another issue.

One of the planet's most important sources of water is groundwater. It is vital to much of life on Earth, but is in grave peril. Groundwater is that invisible supply of water that seeps beneath the surface of the ground, collects in natural underground reservoirs known as aquifers, and is the source of water in springs and wells. It provides almost a third of all freshwater on earth. It is threatened, however, by pollution, water mismanagement and exploding populations -- just as the world's remaining sources of freshwater are endangered.

Over the years rising population, growing industrialization and expanding agriculture have pushed up the demand for water. Efforts have been made to collect water by building dams and reservoirs and creating ground water structures such as wells, some countries have also tried to recycle and desalinate water. Wise conservation of water has become the need of the day. The idea of ground water recharging is gaining in importance in many areas. This is being done through rainwater harvesting.

In droughts we experience low rainfall. Groundwater is of special importance because in drought conditions surface water can be virtually nonexistent. If these dry periods are particularly long, then groundwater supplies will suffer due to the lack of replenishment.