Two sisters in a remote area of Australia sweep out mud from a watering trough.


Making It Count To solve some of these problems, people are getting creative. Some merry-go-rounds in Africa are used to pump water. Kid power brings clean water from under the ground. Elsewhere, people carefully conserve water.


For some Australians, using it twice is nice. T eir shower water doesn’t just go down the drain. Instead, they collect it in buckets. T en they use it to water their plants. Can you think of ways to conserve water, too? If everyone saves a little, we can all save a lot.


Learn more about fresh water at environment.nationalgeographic.com/ environment/freshwater.


Wordwise


condense: to change to a denser form conserve: to save without wasting evaporate: to dry up


state of matter: physical property that describes a substance such as solid, liquid, or gas


vapor: substance in the form of a gas OCTOBER 2010 23


How many gallons does it take to…?


At home Flush a toilet? 8-26 liters (2-7 gallons)


Brush your teeth? 8 liters (2 gallons) if water runs the whole time


In the factory Make one cotton T-shirt? 2,900 liters (766 gallons)


Make one pair of blue jeans? 10,978 liters (2,900 gallons)


On the farm Grow a pound of strawberries? 125 liters (33 gallons)


Grow a pound of apples? 318 liters (84 gallons)


NOTE: Figures are for in the United States.

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