The Water Cycle is an important part of the environment as it is what creates rain, snow, and hail. It works by evaporating water in oceans, lakes, rivers, e.c.t, that the turns it into vapour that floats to the clouds in the sky. After some time of repeating this process, the clouds start to become saturated with water. Because there is too much water in the clouds, they cannot hold it in anymore, so they release the water in a form of rain, hail or snow. This process is called precipitation. After precipitation occurs the water can either do one of 2 things: Do something called “run-off” which is the process of water flowing back into a water source (water sources are things like streams and oceans) or they can percolate into the earth. Now that you know a bit about the cycle itself; I will explain some things that affect it… For the worst.
Somethings that affect the water cycle are:
Oil Spills:
When oil spills into water, it pollutes it. It causes it to become dirty and unusable for anything. This affects the water cycle as the sun will continue to evaporate the contaminated water. This water then will become part of the water cycle after it is evaporated, and will go into the clouds as water vapour. After some time, the clouds will eventually begin the process of precipitation. This polluted water will then leave the clouds in the form of snow or hail or rain. As the water was filled with oil, this will mean that the water precipitated from the clouds will be acidic, and bad for the environment. This will be horrible for the water cycle, and very unhealthy for people.
We can reduce this from happening by reducing the amount of oil close to lakes, rivers, and any body of water in the world. This would mean that if a catastrophe were to happen, and oil was to leak, the water cycle would not be affected by this as the oil will not spill into the water.
Irrigation
Irrigation is the process of watering crops by using systems such as sprinklers and water tanks, instead of letting rainfall do it naturally. While this may sound healthy for the environment, it is not as while we are using the water for a good cause, we are also taking water from the ocean. This is because irrigation systems uses water from oceans, rivers, lakes, streams, e.c.t, which then creates droughts. Droughts affect the water cycle as, without water, the cycle can’t run. This in turn, heavily affects people, wildlife and plants because there is no precipitation
To prevent irrigation, humans only need to do one simple thing: Stop. Let the earth do it naturally. For, millions of years ago, before humans inhabited the world, the plants did just fine. They got enough water from the process of the water cycle for a lifetime. They did not need the help of humans. So if plants could do it then, they can do it now. It is as simple as that. All humans need to do is just stop. Not only will the benefits come right away (for the plants), but they will also come for the humans. No need to spend money or time on sprinklers or any other irrigation system (such as water tanks). Or get your hands dirty while installing such systems. The only time irrigation should happen are if plants are in dire need of water, or if there is a drought, and plants are not getting enough water.
Greywater recycling:
Greywater recycling is the process of using dirty “grey” water and reusing it for things such as going to the toilet or watering plants. Greywater recycling is good for the ecosystem, sewers, and the water cycle as not much water needs to be used to do this, and water is saved and reused multiple times. A simple example of greywater recycling is this: Grey water used from toilets, washing machines, e.c.t, gets filtered after use. When the water is filtered, it can be reused as it is clean. This in turn allows it to be used for other great things such as watering plants. Because of this, greywater recycling is a very sustainable method of using water as little to no water is wasted during the process.
Thanks for reading!