Question

Why is water essential for life?

Answer 1

Hint: Water is a vital and also essential inexhaustible resource which is essential for our survival. The 71% of earth's surface is covered by oceans also known as water bodies which contain 97.3% of the total water. Freshwater exists in different forms, like water vapour in the atmosphere, underground water below the earth's surface, ice caps and glaciers near poles and in rivers, dams, lakes and ponds.

Complete answer:
Water that remains present in different forms and at different places together constitute the hydrosphere.
Significance of Water for Living Beings
Water is essential for the existence of life and survival of living beings in the following ways:
Cellular Process: All cellular processes take place in a watery medium.
Chemical Reactions: All the reactions taking place in the body occur between substances dissolved in water
Transport: All the substances in the body are transported from one part to the other in dissolved form
Solvent: Water is a universal solvent. Various chemicals found in the living world react when dissolved in water.
Turgidity: Water maintains turgidity of the cell, thereby providing a definite shape to the body.
Removal of Wastes: Metabolic wastes are eliminated from the body only when dissolved in water.
Temperature Buffer: Water can absorb or give out heat to prevent sudden changes in temperature of living beings. Excessive heating of the body is checked by evaporation of water by transpiration and perspiration. This dissipates heat from the body
Water also allow light to reach up to the life forms that remain submerged in water bodies

Note: Water is essential for all physiological activities of plants. It acts as an excellent solvent and helps in the uptake and distribution of mineral nutrients and other solutes required for growth and development. Water also plays a direct role in many useful reactions operating in cells. The protoplasm of the cells is nothing but water in which different molecules are dissolved and suspended (several particles). Water plays a key role in photosynthesis and acts as a source of oxygen.