The Burden of Thirst Reading Answers

Mar 19, 2024

The Burden of thirst Reading Answers is an academic reading answers topic. The Burden of thirst Reading Answers have a total of 13 IELTS questions in total. This topic has 6 questions in which you have to fill up the black choosing appropriate paragraphs. In the next 5 questions we have to fill in the blanks. The rest of the questions are choosing from the given choices.

Candidates should read the IELTS Reading passage thoroughly to recognize synonyms, identify keywords, and answer the questions below. IELTS Reading practice papers, which feature topics such as The Burden of thirst Reading Answers. Candidates can use IELTS reading practice questions and answers to enhance their performance in the reading section.

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Section 1

Read the Passage to Answer the Following Questions

The Burden of Thirst

Millions of women carry water long distances. If they had a tap by their door, whole societies would be transformed.

Aylito Binayo's feet know the mountain. Even at four in the morning, she can run down the rocks to the river by starlight alone and climb the steep mountain back up to her village with a container of water on her back. She has made this journey three times a day since she was a small child. So has every other woman in her village of Foro, in the Konso district of south-western Ethiopia in Africa. Binayo left school when she was eight years old, in part because she had to help her mother fetch water from the Toiro River. The water is unsafe to drink; every year that the drought continues, the river carries less water, and its flow is reduced. But it is the only water Foro has ever had.
In developed parts of the world, people turn on a tap and out pours abundant, clean water. Yet nearly 900 million people in the world have no access to clean water. Furthermore, 2.5 billion people have no safe way to get rid of human waste. Polluted water and lack of proper hygiene cause disease and kill 3.3 million people around the world annually, most of them children. In southern Ethiopia and in northern Kenya, a lack of rain over the past few years has made even dirty water hard to find. But soon, for the first time, things are going to change.
Bringing clean water close to villagers' homes is the key to the problem. Communities where clean water becomes accessible and plentiful are transformed. All the hours previously spent hauling water can be used to cultivate more crops, raise more animals or even start a business. Families spend less time sick or caring for family members who are unwell. Most important, not having to collect water means girls can go to school and get jobs. The need to fetch water for the family, or to take care of younger siblings while their mother goes, usually prevents them ever having this experience.
But the challenges of bringing water to remote villages like those in Konso are overwhelming. Locating water underground and then reaching it by means of deep wells requires geological expertise and expensive, heavy machines. Abandoned wells and water projects litter the villages of Konso. In similar villages around the developing world, the biggest problem with water schemes is that about half of them break down soon after the groups that built them move on. Sometimes technology is used that can't be repaired locally, or spare parts are available only in the capital.
Today, a UK-based international non-profit organisation called WaterAid is tackling the job of bringing water to the most remote villages of Konso. Their approach combines technologies proven to last - such as building a sand dam to capture and filter rainwater that would otherwise drain away. But the real innovation is that WaterAid believes technology is only part of the solution. Just as important is involving the local community in designing, building and maintaining new water projects. Before beginning any project, WaterAid asks the community to create a WASH (water, sanitation, hygiene) committee of seven people. The committee works with WaterAid to plan projects and involve the village in construction. Then it maintains and runs the project.
The people of Konso, who grow their crops on terraces they have dug into the sides of mountains, are famous for hard work. In the village of Orbesho, residents even constructed a road themselves so that drilling machinery could come in. Last summer, their pump, installed by the river, was being motorised to push its water to a newly built reservoir on top of a nearby mountain. From there, gravity will carry it down in pipes to villages on the other side of the mountain. Residents of those villages have each given some money to help fund the project. They have made concrete and collected stones for the structures. Now they are digging trenches to lay pipes. If all goes well, Aylito Binayo will have a tap with safe water just a three-minute walk from her front door.

Section 2

Solution and Explanation

Questions 14-19

The reading passage has six paragraphs, A-F.

Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below.

Paragraph A

Answer: VI
Supporting statement:“........Aylito Binayo's feet know the mountain. Even at four in the morning, she can run down the rocks to the river by starlight alone and climb the steep mountain back up to her village with a container of water on her back..........”
Keywords: morning, mountain
Keyword Location: para A, line 2
Explanation: Para A mentions the routine journey made by Aylito Binayo and other women in her village to fetch water from the river, highlighting how this task is a daily occurrence for them.

Paragraph B

Answer: V
Supporting statement:“........ In developed parts of the world, people turn on a tap and out pours abundant, clean water. Yet nearly 900 million people in the world have no access to clean water. Furthermore..........”
Keywords: abundant, water
Keyword Location: para B, line 2
Explanation: Para B provides statistics about the global issue of water scarcity and the lack of access to clean water, emphasizing the scale of the problem and its impact on public health.

Paragraph C

Answer: VIII
Supporting statement:“.........Bringing clean water close to villagers' homes is the key to the problem. Communities where clean water becomes accessible and plentiful are transformed. All the hours previously spent hauling water can be used
to cultivate more crops.........”
Keywords: problem, crops
Keyword Location: para C, line 3
Explanation: Para C mentions the transformative effect of bringing clean water closer to villages, outlining the positive changes in communities where water accessibility improves, such as increased productivity, better health outcomes, and enhanced educational opportunities.

Paragraph D

Answer: I
Supporting statement:“........ But the challenges of bringing water to remote villages like those in Konso are overwhelming. Locating water underground and then reaching it by means of deep wells requires geological expertise and expensive,
heavy machines..........”
Keywords: deep, machines
Keyword Location: para D, line 1
Explanation: Para D mentions the challenges and failures associated with implementing water projects in remote villages like those in Konso, highlighting issues such as technical difficulties, unsustainable solutions, and lack of local involvement.

Paragraph E

Answer: IV
Supporting statement:“.........Today, a UK-based international non-profit organisation called WaterAid is tackling the job of bringing water to the most remote villages of Konso. Their approach combines technologies proven to last - such as
building.........”
Keywords: approach, building
Keyword Location: para E, line 3
Explanation: Para E introduces WaterAid's approach to addressing water scarcity in remote villages, emphasizing the importance of combining technological solutions with community involvement and participatory management practices.

Paragraph F

Answer: III
Supporting statement:“.......In the village of Orbesho, residents even constructed a road themselves so that drilling machinery could come in. Last summer, their pump, installed by the river,...........”
Keywords: road, river
Keyword Location: para F, line 2
Explanation: Parah F mentions a case study of the village of Orbesho, illustrating how community-driven initiatives and collaborative efforts can lead to successful water projects, offering hope for positive change.

List of Headings

Why some plans have failed
A rural and urban problem
A possible success
Explaining a new management style
Some relevant statistics
A regular trip for some people
Treating people for disease
How water can change people's lives

Questions 20-24

Choose NO MORE THAN ONE WORD AND/OR A NUMBER from

the passage for each answer.

The water levels in the Toiro River are falling because of

Answer: DROUGHT
Supporting statement:“.........River. The water is unsafe to drink; every year that the drought continues, the river carries less water, and its flow is reduced. But it is the only water Foro has ever had..........”
Keywords: continues, water
Keyword Location: para A, line 7
Explanation: The passage mentions that the drought in the region has led to reduced water flow in the Toiro River, causing its water levels to fall.

Globally, the number of people who die each year as a result of using dirty water is ...

Answer: 3.3 MILLION
Supporting statement:“........Polluted water and lack of proper hygiene cause disease and kill 3.3 million people around the world annually, most of them children..........”
Keywords: million, most
Keyword Location: para B, line 3
Explanation: The passage states that approximately 3.3 million people worldwide die annually due to diseases caused by polluted water and lack of proper hygiene.

When families have clean water, they can spend more time growing ....

Answer: CROPS
Supporting statement:“......... All the hours previously spent hauling water can be used to cultivate more crops, raise more animals or even start a business. ..........”
Keywords: cultivate, business
Keyword Location: para C, line 3
Explanation: Access to clean water allows families to allocate more time and resources to agricultural activities such as growing crops, as mentioned in paragraph C.

Specialist knowledge and equipment are needed to dig .............

Answer: WELLS
Supporting statement:“........ Locating water underground and then reaching it by means of deep wells requires geological expertise and expensive, heavy machines. Abandoned wells and water projects litter the villages of Konso...........”
Keywords: deep, wells
Keyword Location: para D, line 2
Explanation: Para D discusses the challenges of locating and accessing water underground, which requires specialized knowledge and equipment, particularly for digging wells.

WaterAid uses a dam made of... to capture rainwater.

Answer: SAND
Supporting statement:“.........Their approach combines technologies proven to last - such as building a sand dam to capture and filter rainwater, that would otherwise drain away..........”
Keywords: building, drain
Keyword Location: para E, line 3
Explanation: Para E mentions WaterAid's use of a sand dam as a technology to capture and filter rainwater, preventing it from draining away and making it available for use.

Questions 25-26

Choose TWO letters, A-E.

Which TWO of these activities were performed by the villagers of Orbesho?

building a transport route
digging a reservoir
gathering building materials
making pipes
fitting taps

Answer: A / C
Supporting statement:“.........The people of Konso, who grow their crops on terraces they have dug into the sides of mountains, are famous for hard work. In the village of Orbesho, residents even constructed a road themselves so that drilling machinery could come in..........”
Keywords: residents, come
Keyword Location: para F, line 3
Explanation: Para F mentions how the villagers of Orbesho took active roles in building infrastructure, including constructing a road for drilling machinery and collecting materials for water projects.

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