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Where Our Water Comes From: Pip's Trip from Cloud to Tap

Where Our Water Comes From: Pip's Trip from Cloud to Tap

Learn where our water comes from and why fresh water is shared unevenly. Fill a reservoir, run a treatment works and pipe clean water to a tap.

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What you'll learn

  • Why only about 3 in every 100 buckets of Earth's water are fresh
  • Why rainforests have plenty of fresh water and deserts have little
  • Why south-east England is drier but has lots of people
  • How reservoirs, rivers and groundwater supply our taps
  • The four cleaning steps at a water treatment works, in order
  • How a service reservoir and gravity bring water to our homes

Chapter by chapter

  1. How much of Earth's water is fresh and usable Free to try

    Years 3–6 geography · 1

  2. Why fresh water is shared out unevenly around the world

    Years 3–6 geography · 1

  3. How water is collected and stored: rivers, reservoirs and underground

    Years 3–6 geography · 1

  4. How water is cleaned at a water treatment works

    Years 3–6 geography · 1

  5. How clean water is piped to our homes, and where it goes next

    Years 3–6 geography · 1

  6. Water Trail Challenge: from cloud to tap (10 questions, 2 typed) (10 questions)

What the chapters cover in the national curriculum in England:

  1. Years 3–6 geography: Describe and understand key aspects of human geography, including: types of settlement and land use, economic activity including trade links, and the distribution of natural resources including energy, food, minerals and water

About this adventure

From Cloud to Tap is an interactive geography game that teaches children aged 7–11 where our water comes from: how fresh water is shared out unevenly around the world, and how it is collected, cleaned and piped to our homes. It matches the KS2 geography topic of natural resources in England, and Pip the raindrop reads every step aloud.

Players pour Earth's water into 100 buckets and find that 97 are salty sea water, then hide the fresh ones in ice and underground rock. They read rain gauges, blow rain clouds across the UK and help Amara fetch water from a far-off well.

Next they build a dam to make a reservoir, drill a borehole to reach groundwater, and clean river water with screens, settling tanks, a sand filter and a little chlorine. Finally, gravity carries water from a hilltop service reservoir to the kitchen tap.

Questions and answers

Where does tap water come from in the UK?

UK tap water comes from rain that is collected in rivers, stored in reservoirs behind dams, or pumped up from rocks underground called aquifers. In England about a third comes from groundwater, rising to over three-quarters in parts of the south-east.

How much of Earth's water is fresh water?

Only about 3% of Earth's water is fresh; the other 97% is salty sea water. Most of that fresh water is frozen in ice caps and glaciers or stored underground, so only a tiny amount is in rivers and lakes.

How is water cleaned before it reaches our taps?

Water is cleaned at a water treatment works in four main steps. Screens catch sticks and leaves, dirt clumps together and settles, sand filters trap the last tiny bits, and a small amount of chlorine kills germs.

What age is the From Cloud to Tap game for?

From Cloud to Tap is designed for children aged 7 to 11 and is pitched at Year 4. Every line is read aloud with captions, so younger or less confident readers can follow, while the final challenge gives older children something to test themselves on.

What is included in the game and how long does it take?

The game has five chapters, an optional water cycle warm-up and a 10-question Water Trail Challenge with two typed answers. Playing everything takes about 45 minutes, and children can choose any chapter from the Water Trail map.

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