Question

(i) Differentiate between surface water and groundwater.
(ii) Mention two reasons to explain as to why we are facing water scarcity in recent times.

Answer 1

Hint: Both surface and groundwater are resources or reservoirs of water that we can use to sustain our life on Earth as we know it. These sources of water are used for various purposes as drinking, irrigation, cooling industrial machineries and for recreational purposes.

Complete answer:
1. The difference between surface water and groundwater are –

SURFACE WATER	GROUND WATER
The water found on the surface of the earth is known as surface water	The water that is located below the earth’s surface is referred to as ground water
The water has low mineral content and is more contaminated	Is less contaminated as the rocks above the ground water level work as filters
Due to less minerals it s also known as soft water	Due to the minerals picked during the process of filtration via the rock it's considered as hard water
It is easier to extract surface water	It is comparatively difficult to extract ground water
The sources for surface water are – streams, lakes, rivers etc	The source here is the water that is seeps through the soils and is filtered through tar different layers of earth and is stored in porous soil and rocks
They can be directly used for different purposes like irrigation, cleaning etc	They need to be pumped out of the ground.

2. Two reasons for water scarcity in recent times are –
Contamination and over population of the water resources via the increased number of biological and chemical pollutants
Exploitation of the resources without giving much thought on the impact or without working towards replenishing the resource after usage.

Note: Surface water and groundwater are interconnected as the water that infiltrates the earth’s surface becomes groundwater and in some places the surface water source receives their water source/ supply via the groundwater inflow.