CHAPTER SEVEN
Water in the Desert
Deserts are very dry places, but all deserts have some water.
An oasis is a place where water from under the ground makes a lake or pond. Some oases are small, but some are very big. The Siwa Oasis in Egypt is 80 kilometers long and 20 kilometers across. About 23,000 people live here.
Some deserts have rivers. The Nile River travels through the Sahara Desert. Many people live near this river. They can catch fish and use the water for farming.
In some deserts, there are big rainstorms. Then there’s no more rain for a long time. So it’s very important to collect rainwater. In the Thar Desert, people collect water in ponds, wells, and big tanks.
People in some cold deserts use nets to collect the water from fog.
Each net can catch about 14 liters of water every day.
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