Drainage Basin
The area of land from which a river and its tributaries collect their water.

Cholera
An awful water borne disease.

Colony
A territory or country that is controlled by another country.

Dehydration
The effect on the body of not having enough drinking water.

Delta
An area of land formed by the build-up of sediment at the mouth of a river.

Dysentry
Severe upset stomach needing treatment.

Embankments
These are mounds of earth that can build up on the banks of a river when a river deposits sediment during a flood. Embankments can be built by people out of concrete to contain water within the river channel and prevent flooding.

Erode
The way in which land is worn down as rivers, glaciers, wind or waves move across it.

Fertile
When soil is fertile, it means that it contains lots of nutrients that are good for growing crops.

Floodplain
A flat area of land next to a river which is covered in water when the river floods.

GNP
This stands for Gross National Product, which means the amount of money that a country makes in a year. It is usually divided between the number of people in the country to make an average wealth per person.

Independent
When a colony wins the right to control its own affairs.

Infant Mortality
The number of babies out of every thousand born that die before the age of one.

Irrigation
Different ways of watering the land to help crops grow.

Life Expectancy
How long people are expected to live. This is measured in years.

Malaria
Affects you like a bad flu. Some types can kill.

Monsoon
These are winds that blow across south Asia from the south-west in the summer and from the north-east in the winter, bringing lots of rain with them.

Mouth
The point when a river meets the sea.

Plantation
A type of farm found in tropical areas. A plantation usually covers a large area and grows one or two types of crop.

Plateau
A flat area of land on raised ground.

Resource
A thing that is useful to people.

Sediment
Small particles of sand, mud and rock picked up from the land and carried by rivers until they are dropped when the flow of the water slows down.

Source
The starting point of a river.

Sustainable
Sustainable Development is ways to improve the quality of life for people by using resources carefully. This way, the natural environment and culture of a place can last for generations.

Tributary
A river or stream that flows into a larger one.