1) Water covers 70% of the Earth, but it’s only 1/1000th of the Earth’s volume Show
This image from the US Geological Survey shows what would happen if all the Earth’s water - everything from oceans and seas to ice caps, lakes and atmospheric vapor - was removed from the surface and combined into a single sphere. By volume, the Earth is about 1 trillion or 1,000 billion cubic kilometers. All of the earth’s water comes in at a thousand times smaller, in a sphere with a volume of 1.4 billion cubic kilometers and about 1,400 kilometers in diameter - that’s about the length of Madagascar. 2) 97.5% of the world’s water is saltwater, just 2.5% is freshwater.Of the 1.4 billion cubic kilometers of water on Earth, 35 million or about 2.5% of the total volume is freshwater. Only about 0.3% of this freshwater is easily available for humans to use - the rest is frozen or underground. That leaves about 100,000 cubic kilometers of freshwater for humans to use. 3) There are about 6 olympic swimming pools of accessible freshwater per person.If the total usable freshwater supply for humans is about 100,000 cubic kilometers, then for every one of the 7 billion people on earth, there’s about 15,000 cubic meters of water or 6 Olympic sized swimming pools full. 4) Latin America has 5-times as much freshwater per capita as East AsiaWhile there are 15,000 cubic meters of freshwater per person globally, this water is not evenly distributed. According to data from the Food and Agriculture Organization, Latin America has the highest volume of freshwater per capita - more than 5-times as much as Sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia and more than 20-times as much as South Asia and the Middle East. (Yes, East Asia has a huge population which makes the per-capita figure look low, but when you look at freshwater volume alone, it’s clear Latin America has a lot of it.) 5) Less than 50% of Sub-Saharan Africa’s rural population have access to an improved water sourceWe know freshwater is unevenly distributed across the globe, but there are differences in access within countries and regions. An “improved water source” refers to something like a household connection, public standpipe, borehole, protected well or spring. “Unimproved sources” include vendors, tanker trucks, and unprotected wells and springs. “Reasonable access” is defined as the availability of at least 20 liters per person per day from a source within one kilometer of a dwelling. In 2000, less than 50% of people living in rural Sub-Saharan Africa had access to an improved water source. In urban areas, this figure is over 80%. 6) 70% of the world’s withdrawn freshwater is used for agricultureIn 2011, the world used around 3,900 cubic kilometers of freshwater - 70% of this water was used in agriculture - for maintaining livestock and irrigation, 20% was used for industrial purposes and 10% accounted for domestic water use. 7) Inadequate water supply and sanitation results in $260 billion of global economic losses annuallyAccording to estimates by the World Bank and WHO, in 2010, inadequate water supply and sanitation resulted in US $260 Billion of global economic losses, largely in the form of time savings and health improvements.
There is the same amount of freshwater on earth as there always has been, but the population has exploded, leaving the world's water resources in crisis. A Clean Water CrisisThe water you drink today has likely been around in one form or another since dinosaurs roamed the Earth, hundreds of millions of years ago. While the amount of freshwater on the planet has remained fairly constant over time—continually recycled through the atmosphere and back into our cups—the population has exploded. This means that every year competition for a clean, copious supply of water for drinking, cooking, bathing, and sustaining life intensifies. Water scarcity is an abstract concept to many and a stark reality for others. It is the result of myriad environmental, political, economic, and social forces. Freshwater makes up a very small fraction of all water on the planet. While nearly 70 percent of the world is covered by water, only 2.5 percent of it is fresh. The rest is saline and ocean-based. Even then, just 1 percent of our freshwater is easily accessible, with much of it trapped in glaciers and snowfields. In essence, only 0.007 percent of the planet's water is available to fuel and feed its 6.8 billion people. Due to geography, climate, engineering, regulation, and competition for resources, some regions seem relatively flush with freshwater, while others face drought and debilitating pollution. In much of the developing world, clean water is either hard to come by or a commodity that requires laborious work or significant currency to obtain. Water Is LifeWherever they are, people need water to survive. Not only is the human body 60 percent water, the resource is also essential for producing food, clothing, and computers, moving our waste stream, and keeping us and the environment healthy. Unfortunately, humans have proved to be inefficient water users. (The average hamburger takes 2,400 liters, or 630 gallons, of water to produce, and many water-intensive crops, such as cotton, are grown in arid regions.) According to the United Nations, water use has grown at more than twice the rate of population increase in the last century. By 2025, an estimated 1.8 billion people will live in areas plagued by water scarcity, with two-thirds of the world's population living in water-stressed regions as a result of use, growth, and climate change. The challenge we now face as we head into the future is how to effectively conserve, manage, and distribute the water we have. How much water is available for human use?The Earth might seem like it has abundant water, but in fact less than 1 percent is available for human use. The rest is either salt water found in oceans, fresh water frozen in the polar ice caps, or too inaccessible for practical usage.
Why is there only 1% of the world's water available for human consumption?While nearly 70 percent of the world is covered by water, only 2.5 percent of it is fresh. The rest is saline and ocean-based. Even then, just 1 percent of our freshwater is easily accessible, with much of it trapped in glaciers and snowfields.
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How much freshwater is available for human use
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