levo

Using Resources

Producing potable water in the UK

  • 3 things to know
  • Paper 2

Overview

Potable water and why it is not chemically pure, the low levels of dissolved salts and microbes it needs, why methods vary with local supplies, fresh water from rain, and the UK method of choosing a source, passing water through filter beds and sterilising with chlorine, ozone or ultraviolet light.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Key term

Explain what potable water is, why microbe levels must be low, why it is made differently in different places, and what fresh water is.

Key term

What is potable water?

Key term

State the two things whose levels must be low if water is to be safe for humans to drink.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What is potable water?

    Model answer

    Water that is safe to drink because it contains sufficiently low levels of dissolved salts and microbes.

  2. 2

    State the two things whose levels must be low if water is to be safe for humans to drink.

    Model answer

    Dissolved salts and microbes.

  3. 3

    Explain why potable water is not pure water in the chemical sense.

    Model answer

    It still contains dissolved substances, whereas a chemically pure substance contains only one substance.

  4. 4

    Why must the level of microbes in drinking water be kept very low?

    Model answer

    Microbes in water can cause disease, so water containing many of them would not be safe to drink.

  5. 5

    Why is potable water not produced in the same way everywhere in the world?

    Model answer

    The method chosen depends on the water supplies that are available locally and on local conditions.

  6. 6

    Suggest why a country with very little rainfall cannot produce drinking water the way the UK does.

    Model answer

    It has too little fresh water to draw on, so it must treat salty water instead of simply filtering and sterilising fresh water.

Other ways to work this

The same content, four other ways.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

1Closed book
2Open book
3Closed book

The 3-step method, run for you

Answer cold, learn it, then prove it stuck. Levo tracks the jump between your first attempt and your last.

Atomic Structure and the Periodic Table
Bonding, Structure, and the Properties of Matter
Chemical Analysis
Chemical Changes

Cram a whole paper in one sitting

Sort every topic into what you know and what you do not, then drill only the weak ones.

J J .
ThomsonChadwickRutherford

Blank Blitz makes facts automatic

Rapid timed gap-fills on the terms and numbers you need to recall without thinking.

ALithium compounds produce a crimson flame.
BSodium compounds produce a yellow flame.
CPotassium compounds produce a lilac flame.

Build It gets the exam shape right

Assemble a full-mark answer from its marking points, in the order an examiner wants them.

Base means any substance that neutralises an acid.
TrueFalse

Test It catches misconceptions

Spot the fault in a statement. The traps are the mistakes students actually make.

721941163128510

Brain Breaks between sessions

Short focus games to reset attention, so the next set lands better than the last.

Every question in Using Resources, on a schedule.

Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.

Or £46 a year, about £3.83 a month. Cancel anytime.