The importance of water

Philip and Kim are in Kim’s lab. And this, my friend, is the Liquid of Life! Eh, Kim… I don’t know how to tell you, but it looks just like water to me… You’re right, Philip, it is just water. But water is indeed the liquid of life. Life most likely started in water, and all living things on Earth need water to survive.

Many substances, for example minerals, can dissolve in water - in fact more than in any other liquid on Earth! When dissolved, these substances can mix more easily, react, and make more complicated structures - to finally create living cells! And water allows chemical reactions to take place which keep those cells alive. Water is also the only substance that occurs in nature as a liquid, a solid, and a gas! We see water most often in its liquid form in rivers, lakes and seas.

But water also forms clouds up in the sky, and water is trapped as ice in glaciers. Water is all around us - in the air, in the soil, in all living things - even in our bodies! In fact, about 60% of your body is water! Without water, life couldn’t really exist on the Earth. But only 3% of all water on Earth is freshwater, that is, water suitable for consumption by humans and many other organisms.

And most freshwater is unavailable - it’s locked in polar ice caps, mixed into the soil, or polluted. Only half a percent of all the water on the planet is easily accessible freshwater. Think for a moment of all the situations when you use water in your daily life. You drink it when you’re thirsty. You use water every time you wash your hands or brush your teeth.

Or when you flush the toilet, take a shower, water plants, cook, do the dishes… We use water for so many things! And there is more! Crops we grow and animals we farm also need water to survive, before they become food for us. Crops can usually get water from the rain, but sometimes there's not enough of it. So farmers often need to water.

Water can absorb and store heat very well. It’s often hot water radiators that keep our homes warm when it’s cold outside. Cold water, on the other hand, runs through cooling systems in machines, for example in car engines, to keep machines from overheating. Water can also help us produce electricity. In some places, dams help capture the energy of flowing water, to move turbines in hydropower plants.

This generates electricity. And most of the objects we use everyday are made using water too! Can you imagine, without water we would have no clothes or smartphones! Now we’re talking! My life without a smartphone would be impossible!