How does a well work? Is there a finite amount of water in a drinking well? Why is it okay to drink? Do they somehow replenish water or if they dry up that is it?
In: 162
The ground can be porous sometimes, a bit like a very dense sponge. Water from the rain slowly enters it and accumulate there in pockets of water called aquifer. When going there, it has to go through many layers of rock which act as filter, making ground water usually fairly good to drink (but it is not a guarantee)
When drilling a hole into the ground, it is like if you were putting a straw in a sponge. The water will fill the hole you’ve made and you can then collect it, through a bucket or a pump. You cannot take as much water as you want, but you can take as much as how much rain water is capable of refilling these. And because these aquifer are enormous, it takes a lot of time to actually make a big difference.
But there are definitely cases where we are slowly emptying these, with the water level reducing slowly every year, drying the bedrock. And like a dried sponge, it is a bit more difficult to refill them every time as the drying process will close all the small holes used by water to enter the ground.
Latest Answers