The answer to this question is yes. Water can be used in numerous ways. Did you know that it is used for mining?

A lot more than you may think. It is obvious that water can be used for cooling drills in the same way that it is used for cooling car engines, but it can also be used for gaining salt or alum.

Many substances are very soluble in water and this fact is exploited for mining natural products with the help of water.

In order to obtain salt from a mine, a tunnel is dug and a cave is blasted out at its end. Next, this cave is filled with water from a tunnel that is lying on top of it. This water dissolves the salt from the rocks. The water that is saturated with salt, called brine, is now pumped away and the salt is extracted by boiling (i.e. evaporating the water).

This whole process of mining salt is also called the 'exhaustion process'.

As you can see, the good solving properties can be used to our advantage. However, sometimes these properties may be a disadvantage. Too much rain may leach nutrients from the soil that are vital for plants, for example.

The high solving capacity also brings it about that pollutants, from landfills for example, are dissolved, leached into the ground water and subsequently get into our drinking water.