Dad! Where does this water come from?

Ashok Silwal

We were in my brother’s car, backing from the countryside. My little one was sitting on my lap, I was holding him tight.

The sky was very cloudy and suddenly large drops of water came down to crush on the windshield.

At first, my little son got a bit scared, then turned to me very seriously, he asked me: ‘Dad! Where does this water come from?’

I looked at my brother who was driving and who was also looking at me smiling.

‘Ok- he said to me- I also want to hear your explanatory answer!’

In a few seconds, I thought: where do I start? The importance of water? The various forms of water? How much water on earth? Who lives in the water? The water cycle? The pollution? The power of the water?

I stopped here my mental list and started talking about the water cycle; after all, the question was about the raindrops on the windshield that fell down from the sky and that my brother was chasing away with the windshield wiper !!

‘In nature (I started a little ‘professorial’!), a cycle is a series of linked moments in which each step pushes towards the next, endless.

That of water is one of the most important ‘cycles’ of our planet, because it guarantees the movement and renewal of water, a fundamental resource.

The first phenomenon is evaporation: the evaporated water, from the sea, from the ground, from the rivers, from the lakes…. rises to the sky like water vapor and collects in the clouds.

All clouds are therefore formed by tiny drops of water which, depending on the concentration of water, have different shapes.

When the clouds are too full, the water is released with the rain, falling to the ground (or on the windshield of uncle’s car!). It flows up to the rivers also infiltrating the soil.

So, inside the river, it returns to the sea and… the cycle continues.

You must know that it doesn’t rain the same everywhere: rain is related to many things, pressure, cool or hot air and also the reliefs, meaning for example the presence of mountains and the proximity to the sea, the temperatures, the seasons, the geographical position.

And there is another thing you have to know.

Today, you saw drops of water that is liquid but water can take many forms or ‘states’. It can be gaseous (the vapor… for example in the device you use from time to time to breathe better), liquid or solid (the ice).

Water becomes ice when it is very cold, 0 degrees Celsius and boils at 100 degrees.

Do you know other things made of water ?

‘Yes! – said my little one- the snow, the tea, the frost’……

‘The dew’- added the uncle who wanted to join the game !!! ‘the pip’!! And we laughed together …

‘Yes! You are very right’- I said… ‘the pip and the tears too and the sweat. Our body is mostly made of water; it constitutes a large part of our blood for example and it is found in the cells that form our body.’

It is for this reason that we should drink a lot of water, to keep our body clean.

Now you understand better why the water is very important for us and for the life in general.

It is necessary to quench the thirst of animals, to bring water to the roots of plants and to grow rice for example., to house fishes and other animals.

Another time, we will talk about rivers, springs, sea…. Of salty and non-salty water, of dirty and clean water, of water in nature and in the city, of the power of water, about pollution….

‘But, dad, who discovered the water?’

‘Water is not like the fire which was discovered many, many, many years ago…. Maybe 2 million years ago…’

Water has always been there, since the origin of the world.

And today, we will end with something beautiful: it is the water that sometimes projects a rainbow in the sky!

My brother looked at me amazed!!!

‘Wow!!’, He said, ‘You also manage to conclude poetically…..congratulations! What a great dad you have little one!’

HOW TO LEARN WHILE HAVING FUN !

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