(Freebase) A water well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, boring or drilling to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The well water is drawn by an electric submersible pump, a vertical turbine pump, a handpump or a mechanical pump (e.g. from a water-pumping windmill). It can also be drawn up using containers, such as buckets, that are raised mechanically or by hand. Wells can vary greatly in depth, water volume and water quality. Well water typically contains more minerals in solution than surface water and may require treatment to soften the water by removing minerals such as arsenic, iron and manganese. Until recent centuries, all artificial wells were pumpless dug wells of varying degrees of formality. Their indispensability has produced numerous literary references, literal and figurative, to them, including the Christian Bible story of Jesus meeting a woman at Jacob's well (John 4:6) and the "Ding Dong Bell" nursery rhyme about a cat in a well....

(Freebase) WaterAid is an international non-profit organisation dedicated to helping people escape the poverty and disease caused by living without safe water and sanitation. It is based in London, England and was established by the UK water industry as a charitable trust on 21 July 1981. By 1987 its income exceeded £1 million per annum, and its 2005-2006 accounts recorded an income of £26.9 million. WaterAid currently works in partnership with local organisations in 26 countries in Africa and Asia and pacific region to help poor communities establish sustainable water supplies and latrines, close to home. It also works to influence governments’ water and sanitation policies to serve the interests of vulnerable people and to ensure water and sanitation are prioritised in poverty reduction plans. As a matter of policy, WaterAid supports public ownership and control of water supplies, but does not take a particular view regarding public, community or private participation in service provision. In...

(Freebase) Waterborne diseases are caused by pathogenic microorganisms which are directly transmitted when contaminated fresh water is consumed. Contaminated fresh water, used in the preparation of food, can be the source of foodborne disease through consumption of the same microorganisms. According to the World Health Organization, diarrheal disease accounts for an estimated 4.1% of the total DALY global burden of disease and is responsible for the deaths of 1.8 million people every year. It was estimated that 88% of that burden is attributable to unsafe water supply, sanitation and hygiene, and is mostly concentrated in children in developing countries. Waterborne disease can be caused by protozoa, viruses, or bacteria, many of which are intestinal parasites. Even before the establishment of the Germ theory of disease, traditional practices eschewed water in favor of beer, wine and tea. In the camel caravans that crossed Central Asia along the Silk Road, the explorer Owen Lattimore noted "The...

(Freebase) A weapon is a tool used with the aim of causing damage or harm (either physical or mental) to human beings. In human society weapons are used to increase the efficacy and efficiency of tasks such as hunting, fighting, the committing of criminal acts, the preserving of law and order, and the waging of war. Weapons are employed individually or collectively. A weapon can be either expressly designed as such or an item re-purposed through use (for example, hitting someone with a hammer), their form can range from simple implements such as clubs through to complicated modern implementations such as intercontinental ballistic missiles and biological weapons. Weapon development has progressed from early wood or stone clubs through revolutions in metalworking (swords, maces, etc.) and gunpowder (guns, cannon), electronics and nuclear technology. In a broader context, weapons may be construed to include anything used to gain a strategic, material or mental advantage over an adversary on land,...

(Freebase) Weather insurance insures against weather variations.

(Freebase) Weaving is a textile craft in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads, called the warp and the filling or weft (older woof), are interlaced to form a fabric or cloth. The warp threads run lengthways on the piece of cloth, and the weft runs across from side to side, across the bolt of cloth. Cloth is woven on a loom, a device that holds the warp threads in place while filling threads are woven through them. Weft is an old English word meaning "that which is woven". The way the warp and filling threads interlace with each other is called the weave. The majority of woven products are created with one of three basic weaves: plain weave, satin weave, or twill. Woven cloth can be plain (in one colour or a simple pattern), or can be woven in decorative or artistic designs, including tapestries. Fabric in which the warp and/or weft is tie-dyed before weaving is called ikat. The ancient craft of handweaving, along with hand spinning, remains a popular craft. The majority of commercial...

(Freebase) Welcome to Nollywood is a 2007 documentary film, directed by Jamie Meltzer, which premiered at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, and also played at the Avignon Film Festival and the Melbourne International Film Festival in the summer of 2007. The Nigerian film industry, known as Nollywood, has exploded in the last ten years. Now the most popular cinema in all of West Africa—more popular even than imports of Hollywood or Bollywood films—the Nigerian film industry has distinguished itself by shooting all films (called video films there) on digital video. This has allowed production schedules to be compressed (films are shot in several days) and immediately brought to market (distribution consists of bringing films to Idumota electronics market in Lagos and selling them for home viewing). The sheer volume of Nigerian video films is staggering: one estimate has a film being produced for each day of the year. Nollywood is now the third-largest film industry in the world, generating...

(Freebase) West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 15 countries & an area of approximately 5 million square km: With the exception of Mauritania, all of these countries are members of the ECOWAS or Economic Community of West African States. The UN region also includes the island of Saint Helena, a British overseas territory in the South Atlantic Ocean. West Africa is west of an imagined north-south axis lying close to 10° east longitude. The Atlantic Ocean forms the western and southern borders of the region. The northern border is the Sahara Desert, with the Ranishanu Bend generally considered the northernmost part of the region. The eastern border is less precise, with some placing it at the Benue Trough, and others on a line running from Mount Cameroon to Lake Chad. Colonial boundaries are reflected in the modern boundaries between contemporary West African nations, cutting...

(Freebase) The West Bank (Arabic: الضفة الغربية‎, aḍ-Ḍiffä l-Ġarbīyä, Hebrew: הגדה המערבית‎, HaGadah HaMa'aravit) is a landlocked territory and is the eastern part of the Palestinian territories; on the west bank of the River Jordan in the Middle East. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the country of Jordan. The West Bank also contains a significant coastline along the western bank of the Dead Sea. Since 1967, most of the West Bank has been under Israeli military occupation as what it calls the Judea and Samaria Area. A smaller part of the West Bank is administered by the Israeli civilian authorities as part of Jerusalem District. Prior to the First World War, the area now known as the West Bank was under Ottoman rule as part of the province of Syria. At the 1920 San Remo conference, the victorious Allied powers allocated the area to the British Mandate of Palestine which included modern day Jordan and...

(Freebase) West Java (Indonesian: Jawa Barat; Sundanese: Jawa Kulon; acronym: Jabar), with a population around 41.48 million (2007), is the most populous province of Indonesia. Located on the island of Java, it is slightly smaller in area than densely populated Taiwan, but nearly double the population. Its capital city is Bandung. The oldest human inhabitant archaeological findings in the region were unearthed in Anyer (the western coast of Java) with evidences of bronze and iron metallurgical culture dated back to the first millennium AD. The prehistoric Buni (the present-day Bekasi) clay pottery were later developed with evidences found from Anyer to Cirebon. Some artifacts (dated from 400 BC — AD 100) such as food and drink containers were found mostly as burial gifts. There is also archeological evidence in Batujaya Archaeological Site dating from the 2nd century, and according to Dr Tony Djubiantono, the head of Bandung Archeology Agency, Jiwa Temple in Batujaya, Karawang, West Java was...

(Freebase) West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. West Yorkshire, which is landlocked, consists of five metropolitan boroughs (City of Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, City of Leeds and City of Wakefield) and shares borders with the counties of Derbyshire (to the south), Greater Manchester (to the south-west), Lancashire (to the north-west), North Yorkshire (to the north and east) and South Yorkshire (to the south-east). West Yorkshire County Council was abolished in 1986, and so its districts (the metropolitan boroughs) are now effectively unitary authorities. However, the metropolitan county, which covers an area of 2,029 square kilometres (783 sq mi), continues to exist in law, and as a geographic frame of reference. West Yorkshire encompasses the West Yorkshire Urban Area, which is the...

(Freebase) Western Asia, West Asia, Southwest Asia or Southwestern Asia are terms that describe the westernmost portion of Asia. The terms are partly coterminous with the Middle East - which describes geographical position in relation to Western Europe rather than location within Asia. Due to this perceived Eurocentrism, international organizations such as the United Nations, have replaced Middle East and Near East with Western Asia. This region and Europe are collectively referred to as Western Eurasia. Western Asia is located directly south of Eastern Europe. Western Asia is primarily arid and semi-arid, and can be subject to drought; nonetheless, there exists vast expanses of forests and fertile valleys. The region consists of grasslands, rangelands, deserts, and mountains. Water shortages are a problem in many parts of West Asia, with rapidly growing populations increasing demands for water, while salinization and pollution threaten water supplies. Major rivers, including the Tigris and...

(Freebase) The Western Hemisphere or western hemisphere is mainly used as a geographical term for the half of the Earth that lies west of the IERS Reference Meridian (which crosses Greenwich, London, United Kingdom) and east of the Antimeridian (the International Date Line), the other half being called the Eastern Hemisphere. In this sense, the Western Hemisphere consists of the North America, South America, the western portions of Africa and Europe, the extreme eastern tip of Russia, numerous territories in Oceania, and a portion of Antarctica, while excluding some of the Aleutian Islands to the southwest of the Alaskan mainland. The term is, however, often used in political rhetoric to mean only North America and South America (or the New World) and adjacent islands, however, the Western Hemsiphere does technically include all of the above mentioned territory. In an effort to define the Western Hemisphere as the parts of the world which are not part of the Old World, there also exist...

(Freebase) The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident (from Latin: occidens "sunset, west"; as contrasted with the Orient), is a term that can have multiple meanings depending on its context (e.g., the time period, the region or social situation). Accordingly, the basic definition of what constitutes "the West" varies, expanding and contracting over time, in relation to various historical circumstances. The concept of the Western world has its roots in Greco-Roman civilization in Europe, the advent of Christianity, and the Great Schism in the 11th Century which divided the religion into Eastern and Western halves. In the modern era, Western culture has been heavily influenced by the traditions of The Renaissance and The Enlightenment, and shaped by expansive colonialism in the 18th-19th Century. Its political usage was temporarily informed by mutual antagonism with the Soviet bloc during the Cold War in the mid to late 20th Century. In the contemporary political and cultural...

(Freebase) Westlands is a neighborhood in the city of Nairobi, the capital and largest city in Kenya. Westlands is located 3.1 kilometres (1.9 mi), by road, northwest of the central business district of Nairobi. The coordinates of Westlands are:01 16 12S, 36 48 36E (Latitude:-1.2700; Longitude:36.8100). Westlands was a residential neighborhood of Nairobi during the colonial period which ended in 1963. During the 1990s and early 2000s, as land and office space became scarce and exorbitantly priced in the central business district, more businesses have relocated to Westlands and Upper Hill, where land and office space are more readily available and less expensive. Westlands was initially considered part of the Parklands area and straddled what is now Waiyaki Way, originally the Kenya Uganda Railway. The area has been nicknamed Westie by the youth of Nairobi. The population of Westlands is not publicly known, as of November 2010. In Westlands or near the boundaries of the neighbourhood, there are...