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NCERT Solutions for Class 5th The World Around Us Chapter 2 What Pollutes Me and Why it Matters — Write

Book page 28 Updated on2026-09-19

Q1.
Where do the plastic wrappers and bags that we litter end up?
Answer

Almost all of them end up in a drain, and the drain carries them into a river, and the river carries them to the sea. Very little of it stays where it was dropped.

Follow one toffee wrapper, step by step.

  1. You drop it on the road or on the school ground.
  2. The wind blows it into the roadside drain, or the first rain washes it in.
  3. The drain empties into a nala, and the nala empties into a river.
  4. In the river the wrapper floats along with thousands of others. Look at the picture on page 29 — the water is covered with bottles, packets and bags.
  5. Some of it sinks, gets caught in the mud and stays there for years. Some is swallowed by fish, cattle or turtles who mistake it for food.
  6. The rest is carried all the way to the sea, where it can float for a very long time.
Why plastic is such a problem: A banana peel rots away in a few weeks. Plastic does not rot. It only breaks into smaller and smaller pieces, and those pieces stay in the water and the soil for years and years. An animal that swallows a plastic bag cannot digest it, and its stomach stays blocked. Plastic in a drain also chokes the drain, so the road floods in the next heavy rain.
What you can do: carry a cloth bag to the market, carry your own water bottle and steel tiffin, say no to a straw, and never throw a wrapper anywhere except in a bin. The chapter puts it simply — create less waste in the first place by using eco-friendly products.
Q2.
What kinds of soaps, shampoos or floor cleaners (natural or readymade) are used in your home? Where does the unclean water mixed with these cleaners go?
Answer

Sample answer: “At home we use a readymade bathing soap and a readymade shampoo, a bar of washing soap and washing powder for clothes, a liquid floor cleaner for the floors, and dishwashing liquid in the kitchen. My grandmother also uses two natural things — ash and a slice of lemon for scrubbing vessels, and reetha (soapnut) for washing woollens. All the used water goes down the drain of the bathroom and the kitchen sink. From there it joins the drain outside the house, then the big drain of the colony, and finally it reaches a nala or a river.”

How to find your own answer:

  1. Look in the bathroom, near the washing area and under the kitchen sink. Write down every cleaning thing you find.
  2. Mark each one natural (ash, reetha, lemon, neem, mud, sand) or readymade (soap bar, shampoo bottle, detergent powder, floor cleaner, dish liquid).
  3. Now follow the water. Pour a mug of water down the sink and go outside to see where it comes out. Follow the drain as far as you safely can, and ask an adult where it finally goes.
CleanerNatural or readymadeWhere the used water goes
Bathing soap, shampooReadymadeBathroom drain → colony drain → nala → river
Detergent powder for clothesReadymadeWashing area drain → colony drain → nala → river
Floor cleaner, dish liquidReadymadeKitchen sink → drain → nala → river
Ash, lemon, reetha, neemNaturalSame drains — but these break down quickly and do far less harm
Why this matters so much: Soapy water does not just disappear. Unless a town has a treatment plant that cleans it first, it reaches the river exactly as it left your house. And soap dissolves — it mixes into the water completely and cannot be seen. That is why page 30 warns that even water which looks clean may still carry things that hurt living beings.
An easy change: use only as much soap or powder as is really needed, choose products marked eco-friendly, and never pour leftover cleaner straight down the drain.
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