Unlike surface water collected in rivers and lakes, groundwater is often clean and ready to drink. This is because the soil actually filters the water. The soil can hold onto pollutants—such as living organisms, harmful chemicals and minerals—and only let the clean water through.

Water that soaks into the soil can also continue to percolate down through the soil profile below the water table into groundwater reservoirs, called aquifers. Water that doesn’t soak into the soil collects and moves across the surface as runoff, eventually flowing into streams and rivers to get back to the ocean.

As part of the water cycle, groundwater is a major contributor to flow in many streams and rivers and has a strong influence on river and wetland habitats for plants and animals. Life on Earth depends on groundwater just as it does on surface water.

Generally, both ground water and surface water can provide safe drinking water, as long as the sources are not polluted and the water is sufficiently treated. Ground water is preferable over surface water for a number of reasons.

Answer. Answer: if water does not sink into the ground then there would be any source like underground water .

Infiltration happens when water soaks into the soil from the ground level. It moves underground and moves between the soil and rocks. Some of the water will be soaked up by roots to help plants grow. The plant’s leaves eventually release the water into the air through the plant’s pours as waste.

As water seeps into the ground, some of it clings to particles of soil or to roots of plants just below the land surface. This moisture provides plants with the water they need to grow. Water not used by plants moves deeper into the ground. The water then fills the empty spaces and cracks above that layer.

Aquifers are a huge storehouse of Earth’s water and people all over the world depend on groundwater in their daily lives. The top of the surface where groundwater occurs is called the water table. In the diagram, you can see how the ground below the water table is saturated with water (the saturated zone).

Like a wet sponge, soil already saturated from previous rainfall can’t absorb much more thus more rainfall will become surface runoff.