Strategies to Increase Water Supply Flashcards

All 6 cards in this deck

What is desalination?

Removing salt from seawater to produce fresh drinking water.

Give one disadvantage of desalination.

It is very expensive and energy intensive, usually relying on fossil fuels, so it is mainly restricted to wealthy nations.

How do dams and reservoirs increase water supply?

A dam traps river water in a reservoir, storing it so supply can be released steadily all year.

What is a water transfer scheme?

Moving water by pipeline or canal from an area of water surplus to an area of water deficit.

Give one disadvantage of building a dam and reservoir to increase water supply.

Any one: less water reaches people and farms further downstream; the reservoir floods farmland, habitats and villages, so people have to relocate; it is very costly to build.

Name the two main methods of desalination.

Distillation (heating seawater and condensing the fresh water vapour) and reverse osmosis (pushing seawater through a membrane that holds back the salt).