NCERT Solutions for Class 5th The World Around Us Chapter 1 Water — The Essence of Life
Updated on 2026-09-19
About this chapter
Most of Earth's water is salty. Look at the picture on page 4. A glass holds 200 ml of water. A teaspoon holds 5 ml. If all the water on Earth were that full glass, all the freshwater would be only that one teaspoon. Freshwater is water without salt. We can drink it, cook with it and water crops with it. Sea water is salty, so we cannot use it that way. Water has three forms. Solid — ice and snow. Liquid — the water we drink, rain, river water. Vapour — the invisible water that floats in the air, and the steam above a boiling pan. It is the same water each time. Only its form changes. Heat changes water into vapour. Cooling changes vapour back into water. Very strong cooling makes ice. The water cycle is water going round and round. The Sun heats water in oceans, rivers and lakes. The wate
- Afreen and Jyoti at the window
- Ocean water
- Sources of Water
- Water has Different Forms
- Ice cubes in a steel glass
- Fill the ‘I Observe’ column
- Water Cycle in a sealed bag
- Groundwater
- Groundwater recharge
- Surface Water
Quick revision
| Word | What it means | Where it appears | An everyday example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Freshwater | Water without salt, which living things can drink and use | Page 4, the glass and the teaspoon | Water from a handpump or a river |
| Saltwater | Water with a lot of salt dissolved in it | Discuss, page 4 | Sea water at a beach |
| Water vapour | Water in the form of an invisible gas, floating in the air | Water has Different Forms, page 5 | The steam that rises from hot dal |
| Condensation | Water vapour cooling down and turning back into tiny drops | Activity 2, page 6 | Drops on the outside of a cold steel glass |
| Evaporation | Liquid water turning into water vapour, usually because of heat | Activity 3, page 7 | Wet clothes drying in the sun |
| Water cycle | The never-ending round trip of water: sea to sky to land to sea | Water Cycle, page 8 | Rain today, river water tomorrow |
| Groundwater | Water stored deep under the ground in the gaps in soil and rock | Groundwater, page 9 | The water a borewell pulls up |
| Recharge | Rainwater going back into the ground to fill up groundwater | Activity 5, page 9 | Rain soaking into a school lawn |
| Soak pit | A pit dug to let rainwater sink into the ground instead of running off | Do you know?, page 9 | A pit at the corner of a courtyard |
| Johad | A small earthen dam of Rajasthan that catches rain and recharges groundwater | Do you know?, page 4 | A village johad filling up in the monsoon |
| Surface water | Freshwater we can see on the land — rivers, ponds, lakes | Surface Water, page 10 | The village pond after rain |
| Delta / mouth | The place where a river finally meets the sea | Our Lifeline — Rivers in India, page 12 | The Ganga meeting the Bay of Bengal |
| Waterproof | Something water cannot pass through or wet | Page 19, the waxy leaf | A lotus leaf, or a raincoat |
| Food chain | The chain of who eats whom in a place | Activity 10, page 19 | Water plant → small fish → big fish → heron |
Exercises
- Afreen and Jyoti at the window — In-text Question Page 3
- Ocean water — Discuss Page 4
- Sources of Water — Activity 1 Page 5
- Water has Different Forms — In-text Question Page 5
- Ice cubes in a steel glass — Activity 2 Page 6
- Fill the ‘I Observe’ column — Observing Changes Page 6
- Water Cycle in a sealed bag — Activity 3 Page 7
- Groundwater — Activity 4 Page 9
- Groundwater recharge — Activity 5 Page 9
- Surface Water — In-text Question Page 10
- Mustard seeds on crumpled paper — Activity 6 Page 10–11
- Why rivers go to different seas — Discuss Page 11
- Follow the Flow! — Activity 7 Page 13
- Animals on land and animals in water — Life in Water Page 14–15
- Visit a pond, lake or aquarium — Activity 8 Page 17–18
- A drop of water on plain paper and on waxed paper — Activity 9 Page 18
- Who Eats Whom? — Activity 10 Page 19
- Closing questions — Let us reflect Page 20